He slowly faded into consciousness,
although he had no idea why he’d been asleep in the first place. He had that
strange disconnected feeling–-not like sleep–-more like suddenly skipping some
chunk of time. It was the oddest feeling. His mind was hazy and he couldn’t
quite remember what he was doing when he went unconscious. As his senses slowly
came back, he was able to make some sense of his surroundings. It was
definitely nighttime, and it was cold–far too cold for late spring. His vision
cleared and he realized that he was outside in the middle of the night, leaning
against the wall of a building in some alley. It looked like every other alley
he’d ever seen, so he had no idea which town he was actually in.

Link finally stood up to find some
sign of where he was. It was far colder than he’d originally thought, and there
was even a light dusting of snow on the ground–-definitely not spring weather. When
he instinctively folded his arms over his chest to conserve warmth, he realized
that his clothes were in rather shabby condition. His tunic and pants were torn
and full of holes, and his favorite hat was missing. He took stock of his
situation: he’d woken up and he didn’t remember going to sleep or passing out;
it was snowing, which didn’t usually happen in late spring; and his clothes
were torn up as if he had gotten into a fight. Something was definitely amiss.

Link walked out of the alley and down
one of the town’s side streets, looking for something familiar. He was relieved
when he saw the familiar square of Hyrule Castle Town.
It was virtually deserted; even the usual stray dogs were missing, probably
huddled in a warm corner somewhere. It didn’t take much thinking to decide that
going to the castle was the wisest choice. Perhaps someone there could explain
what was going on.

He walked down the path to the
castle, thankful that the snow was less than an inch deep. Unconsciously he
rubbed his hands over his arms to keep warm; he wasn’t shivering yet, but he
knew he would be soon. At least it’s not windy, he thought. He saw the
two guards at the gate, who were chatting leisurely, suddenly stand at
attention when they saw him approach. One of the guards pointed to Link and
they both laughed; he knew it was his expense, but he couldn’t hear them.

They stopped laughing when he
arrived, and gave him stern looks. “Sorry, we don’t take in vagrants,” said one
guard.

“Yeah, you should find a nice box to
sleep in,” said the other guard. They both laughed at Link, but he definitely
didn’t find it amusing.

“I’m not a bum,” he said through
clenched teeth. “I have free access to the castle any time. Let me in.”

The first guard fought back a
chuckle; this bum’s delusions were far greater than most he encountered. “Get
lost kid. I don’t know what world you’re from, but we don’t let crazy teenagers
wearing tattered rags into the castle.”

“I’m not some crazy teenager,” Link
insisted, his patience growing thin. “My title is
Sir Link of the Kokiri, and I’m personal friends with Zelda. I’m her boyfriend.”

Both guards laughed raucously. “Sure,
you’re a knight,” said the second guard sarcastically. “A Kokiri, huh? You look
a little big to be one of them. Where’s your stupid fairy friend? Did she
flutter too close to the fireplace?”

“You know what? Go find Zelda and ask
her yourself.”

“I don’t think so,” said the first
guard. “And it’s ‘Her Royal Highness, Princess Zelda ’
to you. Show some respect.”

“Try showing me some respect,”
Link shot back angrily. “I’m sure I’ve done more in the last six years than
both of you combined. I got the Star of Nayru at twelve. Did you two just get
hired or something? That would explain your ignorance.”

“You’re walking on thin ice, kid,”
warned the first guard.

“For your information, I’ve had this
post for seven years,” said the second guard. “And I’ve been in the royal guard
for fifteen. He’s been at this post for five years, in the guard for ten.”

Link sighed in frustration. “I really
don’t care how long you’ve been here. The point is that it’s freezing cold out
here, and I have no idea what is going on. I woke up in the alley just a few
minutes ago. Some kind of foul play is involved. And Zelda would be extremely
upset if she found out you two boneheads were out here harassing me.”

“We’re supposed to believe that some
random kid, who we’ve never seen before, is some kind of knight?” said the
second guard incredulously. “Think of it from our perspective. We don’t know
you; you have no means of identifying yourself, and you show up out of nowhere
demanding entrance. What would you do?”

“Listen, I see your point,” Link
admitted. “All you have to do is ask Zelda, her father, Impa, or any of the
other guards that know me.” Link couldn’t understand why these men had never
heard of him. He knew most of the castle guards by name, and the ones he didn’t
know personally still knew who he was. He’d earned quite a reputation in the
castle–-a good reputation–-and he assumed that the guards all knew who he was.
The king had given him a pass to show to anyone who didn’t know him. He really
wished he had that pass right now.

“I’m not going to bother anyone
important to indulge your little fantasy,” said the second guard. “So shoo.”

“It’s not a damn fantasy, and I’m not
a bum!” Link growled.

“Sure, you look really well off to
me,” said the first guard. “If you want someone to take you seriously, come
back in the morning and sign the register to request an audience with the
princess. Your request will be approved or denied within a week, and you can
schedule an audience in a couple months.”

“It’s freezing cold out here!” Link
said angrily, fed up with the guards’ apathetic attitudes. “All my money is
gone, my home is miles away, and I don’t even have a coat. Do you want me to
freeze in a gutter somewhere? If one of you could actually do something
sensible and go inside and ask somebody, you would see that this is nothing but
a misunderstanding. Let me in, or I’ll break in.”

Two more guards came to see what the
commotion was and were standing ready to repel any kind of attack Link could
muster. The first guard stood firm and scowled. “Turn around and leave right
now, or you’ll be arrested. Just walk away, I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

Link considered his options. He could
walk away and try to find shelter, but he doubted that anyone would take him
in, considering how he looked. Pretending to walk away then sneaking into the
castle wouldn’t work; the full moon and fresh coat of snow would make escaping
detection nearly impossible. Fighting them would be out of the question. He
couldn’t bring himself to harm them for doing what they thought was right. His
only choice was to agitate them into arresting him. They would handle him
roughly, but wouldn’t really injure him unless he posed a threat. And he knew
that the guards only considered him a minor nuisance, not a threat.

“Fine, go ahead and arrest me you
incompetent boars,” he shouted loud enough for half the town to hear. “You’ll
be sorry when Zelda finds out what you did.” The two guards at the gate had had
enough and moved forward to grab him. Link moved to the side to dodge them. One
of the guards grabbed his left arm, but he twisted his body and caused the man
to trip and fall. This angered the guards enough to make them shove him roughly
to the ground. Link fell face first, just barely avoiding smashing his nose.
One guard put his foot on Link’s back, while the other sat on his legs and
secured his wrists tightly with some rope. Link purposely squirmed and
struggled as they hauled him to his feet and shoved him through the now open
gate.

“Quiet down or we’ll make you quiet,”
the guard threatened vaguely.

Link only took this as encouragement
to agitate them further. He struggled more forcefully and let his legs go limp
so they had to hold him upright and drag him. As they got closer to the castle,
Link shouted even louder. “Go ahead, throw me in the dungeon you pigs. I feel
sorry for you because that’s where you’ll end up when the king finds out what
you did to me. You’ll end up shoveling the crap from the princess’s horse!”

“Will you shut up!” one guard yelled,
smacking Link on the side of the head with the back of his hand. The blow
nearly sent him tumbling to the ground, but he regained his balance. Link felt
a sharp pain and a warm liquid flowing down his cheek. The decorative
engravings on the guard’s gauntlet had cut Link just above the temple, and it
was now bleeding freely.

Link definitely didn’t expect the
guards to be this rough, and that angered him for real. “You prick!” Link
shouted. “What the hell was that for? You’re really
going to get in trouble now. Zelda will be furious; she’ll skin you alive.”

“Shut your mouth, or I’ll hit you
again,” the guard warned. “And next time you won’t wake up for a while.”

Link gave him a poisonous glare. Even
though he was now bleeding and even angrier, he still had to stick to his plan.
The guards were dragging him to on of the castle’s side entrances, the one that
led to the holding cells. When they entered, Link took his last chance to get
someone’s attention before they threw him in a cold cell for the night. “Hey!
Leave me alone! The princess is going to go crazy when she sees this, and Impa
will strip you of your rank.”

A couple servants and government
officials noticed the commotion, but didn’t pay it any mind. It wasn’t uncommon
for a guard to drag in a raucous troublemaker. Link was quite sure that Impa
was awake at this hour and inside her office, which was at the opposite end of
the hallway from the jail entrance. He only hoped she had her door open and
could hear him. “Hey Impa! Come see what these poor excuses for guards did! I
want my lawyer!”

One guard put his hand over Link’s
mouth to shut him up. Link contemplated biting the man’s hand in retaliation
for his head, but decided not to. To Link’s relief, he saw Impa storm down the
hallway to see what all the noise was about. “What in the name of the goddesses
is going on here?” she demanded to know.

“This ragamuffin was causing trouble
outside the gate,” explained the guard that struck him. “We warned that we
would arrest him, but he kept on making a fool of himself. So were taking him
in to sleep off whatever liquor he’s on.”

Impa was about to let them drag him
off into the jail cell, until she took a closer look at the troublemaker. “Wait
just a minute,” she ordered, and the men did their best to stand at attention
while restraining Link. Impa stared at him for a minute, not sure if he was
real or she was just seeing things. She couldn’t believe her eyes; this
couldn’t possibly be the real Link. “Link?” she asked quietly, afraid that he
just looked like the young man she remembered.

“Thank the goddesses,” Link said, sighing in relief and relaxing a little.
“These boneheads wouldn’t even let me talk to you. I had to make a huge fuss
just to get your attention.”

“Don’t question me! Release him!” The
guards let go of Link and cut the rope that was binding his wrists. He rubbed
his wrists, trying to get the feeling back. He wiped at the cut on his head,
but only succeeded in smearing the blood further. “Why did you injure him?” she
demanded.

“He was resisting arrest,” replied
the guard that hit Link.

Impa glowered. “You do not strike a
prisoner unless he injures you first, or he puts your life in mortal danger.
Both of you return to your posts. Tomorrow morning you will report to the
stables. Your job for the next two months will be cleaning up after the horses.
Furthermore, you will treat this man with respect due to a knight and a
personal friend of the royal family.” The guards nodded that they understood.
“Dismissed.”

After the guards left, Impa returned
to a more relaxed pose and looked back to Link. He stood there, wondering if
she was going to say something, or if he should talk first. As he was about to
open his mouth, Impa smiled and embraced him tightly. Link felt extremely
awkward that she was hugging him, something she never done before, but he
decided to go along with it. “Um, Impa...are you drunk?”

She released him and gave him a weird
look. “I’m not drunk. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.”

“What’s going on?” Link asked,
confused. “I thought I knew all the guards here, but I’ve never seen those guys
before.”

“We’ll talk in a minute. Come with me
to the doctor’s office so she can patch you up.” Link shrugged his shoulders
and followed, figuring that she’d explain her odd behavior eventually. They
entered the doctor’s office and Link sat on the examination table, sighing at
Impa’s overreaction to his minor wound.

The doctor heard them enter and
called from the other room, “I’ll be right there.” The doctor, a middle-aged
woman with short, gray-streaked hair, walked into the main office and gasped at
what she saw. There was a gash on the side of Link’s head above the temple, and
it was still oozing blood. The blood had slid down the side of his head all the
way to his shoulder, soaking into his hair and smearing everything. “Oh, you
poor thing,” the doctor cooed, grabbing a couple towels and some soap, water,
and a blanket. “You’re shivering, you must be freezing.” She put the blanket
around his shoulders and he sighed with relief. “Don’t tell me you were outside
wearing those clothes.” He nodded. “You young men always think you’re
invincible. Just wait until you catch your death of colds. Now, I’ll get your
little cut fixed right up.” She quickly and efficiently wiped the blood from
his head, and dipped a towel in warm soapy water to clean the actual wound.
“How did this happen?”

“A guard got a little too rough
trying to arrest me.”

The doctor gave a strange look,
wondering if this young man was a dangerous criminal. “Don’t worry, he’s not a
criminal. They just mistook him for someone else,” Impa assured her.

“Oh, I see,” the doctor said,
nodding. “Some of those men are animals.” Link winced when she scrubbed the
wound. “Sorry baby, this’ll only be a second.” Link felt silly that this woman
was babying him, but he dealt with it. “This shouldn’t need a bandage; it’s not
that bad of a cut. Just be careful and don’t irritate it, or it’ll come open
again.”

“Thank you,” Link said.

“Is there anything else you need?”
the doctor asked. Link shook his head. “Okay, take care.”

Impa escorted Link out of the
doctor’s office and into her own private office. She motioned for him to sit at
the chair in front of her desk, and she took her own seat behind the desk. Her
position of authority was obvious, and Link probably would’ve felt intimidated
if he didn’t know her personally. She leaned forward and stared him straight in
the eyes. “So tell me, is it really you?”

Link looked bewildered. “Yeah, last
time I checked,” he joked. He chuckled, and then went silent when he saw that
she wasn’t amused. “Of course it’s me, who else would I be?” This was beginning
to feel like an interrogation, and he had no idea why she would do that.

“What is your name?”

Link decided to play along with
whatever game she was up to. “My name is Link.”

“Tell me what happened to you just
now,” she asked, curious as to how and why Link ended up here.

“I was trying to get into the castle
and those guards started hassling me. I told them who I was and they claimed
they never heard of me. I thought I knew most of the guards here, or at least
they knew who I was. They said they’d been working that post for years, but
I’ve never seen them before.”

“No, what happened before you came to
the guards?” Impa clarified. “Where have you been?”

“That’s the weird part. I just woke
up. I was in an alley in the town. I have no idea how I got there. And I don’t
know why it’s snowing outside, it’s almost summer.”

“What’s the last thing you remember
before you woke up in the town?”

Link thought hard, trying to remember
the last moment before he lost consciousness. His memory was hazy and
indistinct, like there was a huge blank in his head. The feeling was very
disorienting and it made him nervous. “I don’t know....” His brow furrowed in
concentration. “Let me think.... It was late morning, and I was coming to the
castle to visit Zelda. She wanted to have lunch together. When I was walking
through the town, I saw a vendor selling fresh flowers. I thought they looked
really nice, so I bought some. I know it’s a little unoriginal to get a girl
flowers, but Zelda always liked them.” He scanned his memory for something
else, but came up blank. “That’s it. I paid the lady, and she told me to have a
nice day.”

“That’s it?” Impa asked.

“Yeah,” he replied. “The next thing I
knew, I’m freezing in an alley in the middle of the night.”

“You don’t remember anyone attacking
you? Or anything at all unusual, no matter how small?”

“No I don’t remember!” Link shouted,
growing sick of this bizarre treatment. “What did I do wrong? If you’re going
to charge me with a crime, then do it. I think I would’ve been better off in
the dungeon.”

Impa got up and went to Link’s side,
putting her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. “Relax, Link. You didn’t do
anything wrong, and you’re not being charged with a crime.”

“So why are you interrogating me?” he
demanded irritably. “And why won’t you explain what’s going on? Don’t you think
I’m a little confused too? I seem to have passed out for no explainable reason,
I woke up in an alley and it’s snowing outside, and
nobody seems to know who I am!”

“I’ll explain exactly what the
problem is: you’d gone missing, and we had no idea what happened to you. You
never showed up that day to have lunch with Zelda.”

“So is that why it’s snowing outside?
Was I out cold through the whole summer and fall?”

Impa shook her head solemnly. “No.
Actually, it’s been considerably longer than that. You’ve been missing for
about ten and a half years.”

Link’s eyes grew wide, and he gave a
look of disbelief. “This is a joke, right? Everybody’s playing some huge joke
on me.”

“I wish it was a joke, but it’s not.
I wouldn’t joke about something like this.” Link sat there silently,
contemplating this strange new development. How could he possibly have vanished
for ten years? He certainly didn’t feel ten years older.

“This can’t be real,” said Link. “I
must be dreaming.”

“No dream,” Impa stated flatly. “How
do you think I feel? You were missing, and we launched an all-out manhunt to
find you. No one ever found any sign of you, except for your hat. We had no
leads, no witnesses who saw anything happen to you. You were just gone.”

Her explanation was interrupted when
the king wandered into her office. “Impa, what’s this I heard about some
kid...” He saw Link from behind, but didn’t see his face so he didn’t realize
who he was. “Is this the kid?”

“Yeah, that would be me,” Link
sighed. “The world has gone crazy on me.”

The king stopped dead in his tracks
when he heard Link’s familiar voice. “Link? Is that you?”

“Yes.”

He walked forward and stood next to
the chair to get a better look at Link. “Dear goddesses, it is you.” In another
surprise move, the king leaned over and gave him a quick hug. “I can’t believe
it, you’re really alive. Do you have any idea how much we’ve missed you?”

“Notice anything weird about him?”
Impa asked. The king looked Link over and shrugged his shoulders. “He’s been
gone for ten years, yet he hasn’t seemed to age at all. Tell me, does he look
twenty-six to you?”

Impa told the king everything she’d
learned so far, how Link seemed to appear out of nowhere with no memory of how
he’d gotten there or where he’d been. “So basically, one mystery has been
solved, and another has taken its place,” the king said.

“Are you going to interrogate me some
more, or can I try to put my life back together?” Link asked with obvious
annoyance in his voice.

“We don’t mean to make you
uncomfortable,” Impa said in a soothing voice. “But you have to understand it
from our perspective. You’ve been missing without a trace, and suddenly you
show up without aging. That’s a little suspicious.”

“How do you think I feel?” Link
countered. “I’m missing a huge chunk of my life. The entire world has changed
around me. I know you think I could be some impostor, and I don’t blame you.
What do you want me to do to convince you? Obviously I can tell you things that
only the real me would know.”

“Give us an example,” said the king.

“Where should I start?” Link racked
his brain trying to think of something private that not only he would know, but
Impa or the king would know as well. “Okay, Impa. On your fifteenth birthday
you got drunk in some Sheikah tradition and woke up on the roof of your house.”

The king gave her an odd look and
started laughing. Impa’s cheeks reddened slightly, and that only made him laugh
louder. “You actually did that? No way, I don’t believe it.”

Impa put her head on her desk and
sighed. She had no idea telling that little story would come back to bite her.
She always had the aura of a wise, no-nonsense soldier, especially to those who
respected her. “Yes, it’s true,” Impa admitted. “I did do that.”

“Well, that’s one example,” the king
said, fighting back a chuckle. “That’s almost enough to convince me.”

Link thought hard again, but couldn’t
come up with anything off the top of his head. “I don’t know. I never expected
a situation like this.” He went silent for a minute, the impact of his whole
situation finally hitting him. “What about Zelda? If anyone would know, it
would be her.”

“I still feel uncomfortable about
that,” said the king. “I don’t know if you should see her until we know more
about you.”

“But Zelda would know!” Link
insisted. “How could you not trust me with her! I’ve saved her life several
times, I’ve always protected her and I love her more than anything. She has to
be heartbroken over this, right? I don’t know what I’d do if she disappeared.
She should at least know that I’m here for her now.” Then a very disturbing
thought ran through his head, and he looked extremely worried. “Wait...are you
holding me back because she doesn’t want to see me? Please don’t tell me that
she’s found some other man, and is married with kids. My whole world has gone
to shit, and I don’t want the one woman I love to have forgotten about me.”

Link was on the verge of tears, and
the king put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Calm down, son. She hasn’t
forgotten about you. It’s quite the opposite. She’s missed you terribly. I’ve
never seen her so depressed, ever. I know she would never leave you for anyone
or anything. She’s been stricken with you since they day you met. That kind of
love never goes away. She still talks about you all time; she always wonders
what you would do in a certain situation, or how you would feel about something.
She misses you so much that she sleeps with your hat.”

“How has she been?” Link asked sadly.

“She has her ups and downs,” the king
replied. “But they’re mostly down. She’s coped in different ways. For at least
a year, she personally led expeditions to find you. After we stopped the
official searches, she still occasionally would go out on her own
investigations. Then she stopped looking, but never gave up hope that you would
come back.

“She tried at lot of things to take
her mind off you. She liked to go on benders when she was younger, she’d stay
drunk for days at a time. When I cut off her access to liquor, she would sneak
out of the castle and buy it from people. It took some time, but we finally
helped her break that habit. Now she cycles between endless work and studying,
and total apathy. She doesn’t have that same spark she used to have. She
doesn’t seem to really care about anything, especially herself. She skips meals
all the time, would never get a good night’s sleep... It’s horrible. She either
loses her temper at the drop of a hat, or lets people walk all over her. Right
now she’s depressed and doesn’t care.”

Link listened to the story with a
heavy heart, imagining all the pain she’d gone through because of him. Then
Link had a horrible thought. “She didn’t try to...to hurt herself did she?
Because...she promised me she wouldn’t. She promised me.”

“Oh, Link, no. She never tried to
kill herself,” the king assured him. “She mentioned that promise she made to
you every time she felt like she couldn’t take it anymore.”

“How is she now?” Link asked.

“She’s in one of her depressed
cycles,” replied Impa. “She hasn’t gotten out of bed all day.”

“I want to see her,” Link demanded.
“I want her to know that I’m here.” Impa and the king both looked at each other,
silently debating if they should let Link see Zelda. Their gut feelings said to
trust him, but they didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. “Please,” Link
begged. “Just let me see her. You can watch me.”

The king finally decided to grant
Link’s wish. “All right Link, I’ll let you see her. I’ll go get Zelda, and Impa
will get you some clean clothes.” Link thanked him, and he left to fetch Zelda.

“I think you are who you say you
are,” Impa said. “I don’t think an impostor could ever accurately pretend to be
you. And Zelda will be the final proof. She would know.”

“Thanks for your confidence,” Link
said sincerely.

“I’ll go get you some clothes.”

The king walked slowly to Zelda’s
room, all the while thinking of how he should break the news to her. He didn’t
want to overexcite her, but he didn’t want to make it seem unimportant either.
When he reached Zelda’s door he opened it and stepped inside, looking around to
see if she was up and about. As he suspected, Zelda was in bed, evident by the
lump underneath the blankets. The lump moved and Zelda stuck her head out.
“It’s customary to knock before entering someone’s private room,” Zelda
muttered. “Have you come to force food down my throat again? I promise I’ll eat
something in the morning.”

“No, this isn’t about food,” her
father replied, used to her attitude. “Actually, this isn’t even about you.”

Zelda groaned. “What, is it a funeral
for some older-than-dirt politician that I never even heard of, but have to
pretend I knew? Or is some stupid prince asking for my hand in marriage again?”

He groaned at her typical response,
but wasn’t angry at her. “Zelda, this is good news for a change.” She moaned
unenthusiastically. “Sit up and look at me, this is no time for games.”

“Fine,” she shot back, throwing the
covers away from her and sitting up to face him with an annoyed expression.
“What is it?”

“Link is here. We found him.”

Zelda’s eyes went wide and a tiny
glimmer of hope flashed across her face, but quickly disappeared. “This is a
joke, isn’t it? That’s not funny at all.”

“Do you think I would joke about
something like that?” her father said irritably. “I’m serious, he’s downstairs
right now. He just showed up. I don’t know where’s he’s been and how he got
here, but neither does he. But I have little doubt that it’s really him.”

Zelda shook her head. “No, this can’t
be real. I’ve had this dream before. I’m going to see Link, and when I try to
touch him, he’ll disappear. It happens every time.” He leaned over and pinched
Zelda’s arm. She yelped. “What was that for?”

“You’re not dreaming.” Zelda shot out
of bed and ran for the door, but her balance was off and she nearly fell over.
Luckily, her father caught her before she could fall. “Goddesses, I’m so
pathetic!”

He helped her up and took her arm to
support her. “It’s all right, Sweetie. I’ll help you.” Zelda leaned on him
heavily for support. Her head was swimming and she felt weak and tired. She
hadn’t had a decent meal in weeks, and it took a heavy toll on her strength.
“Everything is going to get better.”

Link waited patiently for Impa to
return with some decent clothing, and in the meantime he sat next to the small
wood stove for warmth. He didn’t realize until now how much the cold had cut
through him. The heat felt great, and he lost himself in the moment. The
clearing of Impa’s throat snapped him out of his reverie. “Here’s some clean
clothes for you. They belong to Zelda’s father, so they should fit you okay.
But you might need to tighten the belt a bit, he’s gotten a little wider since
his younger days.” Link chuckled and she handed the clothing to him. It was a
simple white sweater and a pair of black pants. “I’ll give you some privacy to
change. Just yell when you’re done.” Impa left the office and closed the door
behind her. Link removed his torn and dirty clothes and was happy to put on
something warm and soft. He was surprised at how comfortable these simple
garments were; he supposed it was one of the perks of being the King of Hyrule.

“You can come back now,” Link yelled
at the door.

Impa returned and looked him over
with a critical eye. She seemed to be satisfied and nodded. “Not bad on you,”
she said. “Although the extra room around the stomach area gives it away that
they aren’t yours.”

“Thanks, I appreciate everything.”

“You’re welcome, Link.”

Both of them waited in silence for
Zelda and her father to return. Link felt a little apprehensive about seeing
Zelda because he had no idea how she would react. He tried to imagine how he
would feel if Zelda had disappeared for a decade, then suddenly returned. He
did know that she would be extremely emotional, whatever those emotions would
be. He seriously hoped that she didn’t cry; he hated it when she cried. Link
would never admit it, seeing Zelda upset made him want to cry too. But he had
to stay strong for her, to help her feel better.

“Do you think things will get
better?” Link asked, searching for some reassurance.

“Yes. It will be hard at first, but
it will get better.”

“I still can’t believe what’s going
on. I missed ten years of my life, but more importantly, I lost ten years of my
friends’ lives.” He remembered the seven years he’d skipped on his first
adventure. He’d been lucky though, he’d gotten those years back and was allowed
to live them the way nature intended. But he didn’t know what to make of this
situation. There was no wise sage to explain things to him. The world passed
him by, and there was no one who could tell him why. “I want to know who did
this to me. I need to fix this.”

“There might not be a way to fix it,”
said Impa.

“There’s a way to fix everything,”
Link insisted. “I just have to find out how.”

“What if nobody is responsible for
this?”

Link looked at her as if she’d lost
her mind. “A person doesn’t mysteriously disappear and come back ten years
later. Someone did this to me on purpose. Every fiber of my being tells me so.”

“You seem to have a better instinct
on supernatural things,” Impa admitted. “The Sheikah people are known for their
special connection to magic and the world beyond death, but this is something
else. Your powers are something else entirely. I’ve never met anyone quite like
you. I suppose if anyone can figure it out, it’d be you. I’ll do anything in my
power to help, and I’m sure Harikana would agree when I say that all of
Hyrule’s resources are at your disposal.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

The door to the office opened and
Zelda wobbled in, almost hanging off her father. The second she laid eyes on
him, she froze. She stared into Link’s eyes, silently analyzing him. Impa and
her father watched the pair with curiosity. It was as if they were silently
communicating with each other on a level no one else could understand. In a
way, it was true; but the communication was on a more spiritual and emotional
level than actual words or ideas. Link could feel the emotions flow from her;
every feeling from total sadness and despair to joy.

Zelda’s eyes glistened with unshed
tears, and she gave a small smile. “It really is you,” she whispered. She let
go of her dad’s arm and took a shaky step forward. But Link anticipated her
trouble and caught her as she fell. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed
him full on the mouth. Link was surprised that she would do that in front of
her father, but he ignored that thought and kissed her back. They continued
their passionate kiss until the finally had to break apart just to take a
breath. “Oh yes, it’s definitely him.”

Zelda’s legs were shaky, so Link
picked her up, gently set her on a couch, and sat next to her. Zelda didn’t
seem to like this arrangement, so she scooted into his lap and put her arms
around him again. Link knew exactly what was about to happen; Zelda’s eyes
watered, she put her head on his shoulder, and started crying. All he could do
was comfort her and rub her back as she sobbed. He felt his eyes water, but he
fought back his own tears. “Link, I missed you so much,” she stammered out
between sobs.

Link kissed her on the head and
stroked her hair. “Ni keto janeka,” Link whispered
into her ear. I love you. It was a Kokiri phrase that
Link had always said to her. At first, she didn’t know what it meant, until she
asked Saria. After that, Link had taught her the language so she wouldn’t feel
like any outsider in the Kokiri Forest. It had been the first language Link had spoken, so saying that phrase
to Zelda in Kokiri was far more intimate for him.

“Ne kito ya janeka,”
Zelda whispered back. I love you too. Zelda cried for
several minutes more, but finally calmed down. She lifted her head off his
shoulder and sniffled a couple times. Link handed her a handkerchief that Impa
had given him, and Zelda used it to wipe the tears off her face. Although she
no longer had her arms wrapped around Link, she still kept a tight hold on his
hand, fearful that he would vanish if she let go.

“I’ll make everything better, I
promise,” Link said.

“Don’t make a promise like that,”
Zelda admonished. “You don’t know what will happen in the future. All I want is
for you to stay with me.”

“I’ll always be with you.” He gave
her a reassuring smile. “I won’t let anything change that. I’ll get to the
bottom of this, and I’ll do anything I can to fix it.”

“What if it can’t be fixed?” Zelda
asked, the pessimism obvious in her tone. “We didn’t know what happened to you
for ten years. Then you show up out of the blue, and you
don’t even know what happened. How could you fix it if you don’t even know what
happened?”

Link sighed in frustration. Zelda
obviously had little or no hope left, and it would take a long time to help her
get her confidence back. Link knew that the odds against him were great, but
he’d won against odds greater than this. Even if he could never figure out what
caused this problem, he would still stay with Zelda and never leave her for
anything. “Maybe I won’t be able to fix it. But that won’t change how I feel.”

Zelda seemed satisfied with his
response, but felt a little guilty for criticizing him when he was only trying
to make her feel better. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted you like that.”

“I can understand how bad it’s been
for you. I would’ve searched the whole world until I found you or died trying.”

“I tried that,” said Zelda. “But they
stopped me. They wouldn’t let me spend the rest of my life looking for you. I
had no choice. It was supposedly for the good of Hyrule.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Link said. “The
people need you. You’ll be queen one day, and you have to be there for them.”

“I don’t dread it now that you’re
here.”

Link smiled and hugged her tightly,
gently rubbing her back. When they moved apart, Link had a small frown on his
face. “You’re too skinny,” he said. “I could feel your ribs.” Link now noticed
Zelda’s physical condition; he’d been too caught up in comforting her to
notice. She definitely looked older, like a woman of twenty-six. But she didn’t
look healthy. Her skin looked pale and pallid. She’d always had a very light
complexion, but now she was sickly-looking. He could see that her arms were
thin and bony, and he was pretty sure that her ribcage was visible as well.

Zelda lowered her head, ashamed that
Link had to see her like this. “I know, I look horrible. If you think I’m
hideous, go ahead and say so.”

“What? No, I don’t think you’re
hideous at all,” Link assured her. “Don’t ever think about yourself like that.
You’ll always be beautiful to me. All I meant to say was that you need to eat
more. I know you haven’t been taking care of yourself.”

“I told the cook to prepare some food
for us,” Impa said. “It should be done by now.”

“I’m not that hungry,” Zelda said.

“Well, I’m starving,” said Link. He
looked over at Zelda. “You’re eating too. You have to eat something or you’ll
never get your strength back.”

“All right. I’ll have something.”

“Okay, let’s go then,” Link said. He
took a secure hold on Zelda’s arm and led her towards a small, private dining
room. The king silently thanked the goddesses for this turn of events. Zelda’s
constant self-neglect made him more and more worried every day. But all it took
was Link’s gentle encouragement to set Zelda on the path back to normal. Link
was a strong person, and Zelda’s father had no doubt that he would use that
strength to mend Zelda’s body and soul.

A man wearing a long, brown cloak
wandered through the castle village, using extra caution not to be seen. It was
common to see outsiders in the village, whether they were foreign dignitaries,
guests of residents, or people shopping; so the man wasn’t too concerned about
ordinary citizens seeing him. The ones he worried about were the few that might
recognize him.

The man, in his early forties, looked
with amazement at the town around him. The town looked so much different now
than he remembered. He hadn’t been here in years, and the last time he saw it,
there was nothing but total destruction. He smiled at the simple beauty of the
village, something he so sorely missed. But he couldn’t waste his time
reminiscing; he had a mission to accomplish.

He had seen the young man, Link,
stumble through the cold winter night, disoriented and confused. The man
couldn’t help but chuckle quietly when he’d seen Link deal with the castle
guards. He wished that he could confront Link directly right now, but that
would have proved fruitless. If he’d confronted Link now, there was little
chance he’d believe what he had to say. So all he could do was wait until Link
discovered what had happened to him. Then he could perform his mission.

The mission was the only thing that
mattered to the middle-aged man. It was his last-ditch effort to preserve the
life he had once had, along with the lives of his friends and family. Luckily,
he knew Link well. He knew his personality, mannerisms, and even his thoughts.
The man also knew exactly what Link was going to do in the next couple of days.
There was always a chance of some random variation from what he expected, but
the overall outcome would be the same. For now, all he could do was wait.

After he was sure that Link had
gotten to the castle safely, he quietly wandered back through the side streets
of the town. He couldn’t risk renting a room and being recognized, so he had to
rough it. Luckily for him, there was an abandoned building at the far edge of
town. The previous owners had moved out, and the new owners wouldn’t move in
for a couple weeks. As he approached the door, the man scanned his surroundings
to make sure no one had seen him. Then he took an old, rusted skeleton key from
his pocket and unlocked the door. The house was cold and dark, but he couldn’t
risk lighting a lamp; that would attract too much attention. There was a
fireplace on the far side of the room, which was far enough away from the door
that it wouldn’t attract much attention. He’d already drawn the drapes and
fastened blankets over the windows to block out any light that a fire might
produce. He opened his tinderbox and made quick work of starting a fire. There
were plenty of logs next to the fireplace, and the new owners wouldn’t miss
them. Once he’d gotten the fire going nicely, the man wrapped a couple blankets
around himself and lay down to sleep. He’d have a lot of work to do tomorrow if
he was going to succeed in his mission.

After much prodding and
encouragement, Link had finally convinced Zelda to eat something. She only ate
a couple slices of bread and a bowl of soup, but at least it was a start. Now
it was time to go to bed. Link was tired, and Zelda had almost fallen asleep
several times during the meal. “I’m glad you managed to eat something,” Link
said.

“I tried my best,” Zelda replied.

“You need to go to bed,” Link told
Zelda as he helped her out of the chair.

“That’s a good idea,” said her
father. He hugged her and kissed her on the forehead. “Do you want me to help
you upstairs?”

Zelda shrugged her shoulders. “Link
will do it. But you can if you want to.”

“That’s okay,” her father said. “I’ll
let him take care of you.” He looked over at Link. “I trust you. Be good to
her.”

“I’ll protect her with my life,” Link
said firmly. Link took Zelda’s arm and led her out of the dining room.

Imps stopped him for a moment before
he left. “Your usual guestroom is ready.”

“Thanks,” Link said as he led Zelda
away. Neither spoke as they went upstairs to Zelda’s room. Link was too busy
trying to keep Zelda from falling, and she was too focused on staying awake.
She sighed with relief when they reached her room. Link pulled back the covers
for her and helped her into bed. She collapsed with an exhausted sigh. Link
gave her a bewildered look and scratched his head.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Link looked at the bed then back at
her, unsure if he was just seeing things. “Um...Is that my pillow? And my
blanket?”

“They reminded me of you,” she said
sheepishly. “Solo didn’t want to live alone, so she moved in with Malon to live
and work at the ranch. So I asked her if it was okay if I borrowed your
blankets and stuff. I know it sounds weird...but I wanted something.”

Link’s eyes widened and he looked
frantic. “Oh my goddesses! I forgot about Solo! Is she doing okay? I can’t
believe I forgot about her. I’m such a horrible brother...”

Link nodded. “You’re right. And I
need to see Saria too. It’s okay that you took my blankets. I can understand
that.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Good night. I hope you can sleep
tonight. I’ll be in my room if you need me.” Link went to walk away.

“Wait.” Link stopped and turned
around. “Don’t leave. Please.” She scooted over and patted the spot next to
her. “Sleep with me, I don’t want to be alone.”

Link’s eyes went wide. “Zelda, I
don’t think I’m quite ready for...”

“Get your mind out of the gutter.”
Link’s face reddened when he realized that wasn’t what Zelda meant. Luckily the
room was dark and she couldn’t see his embarrassment. “I didn’t mean it like
that.”

“Sorry,” Link apologized. “I didn’t
mean to think that about you.”

“It’s all right. Men can’t help it.
But all I wanted was for you to sleep next to me, that’s all. It’s cold out,
and I’m sick of being alone.”

“But I don’t want to make your father
mad.”

Zelda sighed. “Don’t worry about him.
You’ve earned his trust. And I’m a grown woman, if I want to sleep with you, I
will. Even if it is what you were thinking.” She sensed his unease and quickly
clarified. “But it’s not. Just sleep, that’s it. Please?”

“All right, I’d like that.” Link
hesitated for a moment and Zelda wondered what he was worried about now.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He plucked at his sweater. “These
clothes aren’t going to be comfortable to sleep in. And I don’t think I should
take them off. That might be a little awkward...too tempting.”

“Yeah, I see your point. Go check the
guestroom; they might have laid out some sleeping clothes for you. It’s cold
out, and it would be common courtesy.”

Link nodded and left for his usual
guestroom. As Zelda said, on the bed lay a pair of purple silk pajamas. He
quickly removed his borrow clothes, threw them on the bed, and put on the
pajamas. He was amazed at the feeling of the silk against his bare skin. It
felt so light, but warm as well. He would definitely have to get some of these.
His normal clothes felt like burlap compared to what he was wearing now. Link
left the guest bedroom and went back to Zelda’s room, where she was patiently
waiting. Link slid into bed next to her and pulled up the blankets. Zelda
immediately sidled up to him and put her head on his shoulder.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” she
murmured quietly. “I’m always so cold at night, and you’re so warm. I love
you.”

“I love you too Zelda,” Link replied,
kissing her gently. “Always.” Link put his arm around her and they both drifted
into a contented sleep.

Chapter 2

The man woke up early, just before
sunrise. He checked the fireplace to make sure it was out, and looked around to
see if there were any glowing embers laying around. Satisfied that the house
was safe and secure, he opened the door and left. He locked the door and put
the key back into his pocket. He couldn’t leave any evidence behind. Ashes in a
fireplace weren’t a problem, those were there to begin with. But anything he
brought with him, he had to keep with him.

The man decided to wander around town
like a normal visitor, but in reality, he was only killing time until the
drawbridge opened. He considered buying a pastry from a vendor, but decided
against it. He could eat later. He slowly walked towards the entrance of the
town, counting the minutes until dawn. And right on time, the loud ratcheting
noise of the drawbridge could be heard. He was the first one to leave the
village this morning, nodding politely to the guard as he left.

Now in the open expanse of Hyrule
Field, the man walked briskly toward his next destination: the Kokiri Forest. No snow
had fallen during the night, and what was already on the ground
was thin, especially on the field’s well-worn paths. The almost bare path was
in excellent condition for foot travel. There was little or no ice, so he could
jog most of the way there. If he could keep up a steady pace, he could make it
to the forest and avoid meeting Link on the way there.

Link opened his eyes and yawned
widely, wondering for a second where he was. He felt Zelda clutched tightly to
him, and the memories came flooding back. Zelda looked calm and peaceful as she
slept, much better than the emotional wreck she’d been the night before. He
wasn’t sure what time it was, probably late morning. Zelda looked so happy that
he didn’t want to risk waking her up. And from the stories he’d heard, she
definitely needed the rest. So he lay there, trying not to move, waiting for
her to wake on her own. He could lie here forever if he had to. He enjoyed the
feeling of Zelda’s warm body against his.

Zelda stirred a little and moaned
quietly. Her eyelids fluttered and opened. When she realized she was lying next
to Link and not dreaming she smiled. Link gently stroked her hair and waited to
see if she would get up or go back to sleep. Zelda decided to wake up. She sat
up and yawned, and stretched her arms. “I haven’t slept that well in years,”
she said. “Thank you for staying with me.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Link
said. They both got out of bed and kissed each other. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Linkie-pooh.”

Link smiled widely on hearing her use
his pet name. That was a definite sign that she was feeling better. He looked
at the clock and saw that it was almost ten o’clock, not too late or too early
as far as he was concerned. “I’m surprised no
one tried to wake us up.”

“Daddy and Impa gave up on that a
long time ago,” Zelda said with a shrug. She looked down at herself, then at
Link. She was in her nightgown and he in his pajamas. “We should probably get
dressed, and then go to breakfast.” Link nodded in agreement.

“You can wear the same clothes as
yesterday, you weren’t in them for long.”

“I’ll try to only take forty-five
minutes,” she said, rolling her eyes and shooing him out. With a happy,
light-hearted feeling, he went to his room and put his other loaned clothes
back on. He hoped that Zelda’s good attitude would remain. Link was done
changing in a minute, but figured Zelda would take a while longer. He patiently
waited outside her door for some sign that she was done. After about ten
minutes, she called from inside, “Okay, you can come in now.”

Link entered her room, amazed that
she’d gotten dressed so quickly. His question was answered when he saw that she
hadn’t brushed her hair or put on makeup. She was waiting patiently at her
vanity table, brush in hand. Link smiled and went over to her. “I was wondering
how you got done so quickly,” he said. “You didn’t do all your primping and
preening.”

She smiled sweetly at him. “I thought
you could preen me today.” She handed Link the brush and he delicately and
diligently went to work. He brushed her hair as gently as possible, hoping he
wouldn’t catch too many tangles. He’d done this several times before, and each
time he got better. The best part was that they both enjoyed it; Zelda liked
the attention from him, and he liked doing it for her.

Link frowned when he hit a bunch of
tangles, and tried his best to brush them out without hurting her. “You haven’t
been taking care of your hair, have you?” he asked.

“No,” she admitted. “I didn’t really
care. But now that you’re here, I can look pretty for you again. I had no
reason to before.”

“You’ll always look pretty to me,
even now. I know you don’t feel healthy now, but you’ll get better. I’ll love
you skinny or fat, or anything in between.”

“Thanks, Link. That really means a
lot to me. I know it must be strange for you to wake up in a world that’s left
you behind. But I know you’ll adapt to it.”

“It’s strange, but I will get to the
bottom of this.” He stopped brushing and stood back to look at his work. He
gazed expectantly at Zelda and she nodded in approval. Then she opened her make
up box and dug through it. Link stared in wonder at the unending assortment of
powders, creams, lotions, colors, and potions. She decided on some kind of
flesh-colored powder and what looked to be lipstick. After she was done, she
looked to Link for his opinion.

“You look beautiful as always,” he
said. “It’s weird that you’re older than me, though. But now I get to see what
you look like as a grown woman. You really don’t look that much different, just
a little more mature, I guess. It’s hard to describe.” He looked her up and
down, trying to notice the difference. “You’re a little bit taller. That must be
it.” He nodded, satisfied that he’d figured it out. “Do you want some breakfast
now, I could use something to eat. Are you hungry?” Zelda opened her mouth to
answer but her interrupted her, “You’re eating even if you’re not hungry.”

“Yes, I’ll eat something. If you want
to baby me, that’s fine.”

“I’m not going to insult you like
that,” Link said.

“I was just joking. I know you
wouldn’t do that.” Link offered his hand and she gladly took it. As they made
their way to the dining room downstairs. Link kept a careful eye on her in case
she stumbled or fell like the night before. But she walked steadily and didn’t
falter. Link was amazed at what a decent meal and a good night’s sleep could
do.

When they entered the dining room,
Impa and Zelda’s father were already there, chatting. “I hope you weren’t
waiting for us to get up,” Zelda said.

“No, actually we got up not too long
ago,” her father replied. “We figured we’d wait for you.”

“I had a hunch that Link would get
you up and about,” Impa added. “I’ll go tell the servants that we’re ready.”

“You look really great today,
sweetie,” said Zelda’s father. He couldn’t have been more grateful that Zelda
finally had a zest for life again. The light in her eyes was back, and she
actually smiled. It was amazing how one man’s presence could change Zelda so
drastically overnight. He sincerely hoped that the happiness wasn’t temporary
and that Link and Zelda’s relationship could continue despite the bizarre
circumstances.

Before Zelda sat down, she went over
to her father and hugged and kissed him. “Good morning, Daddy,” she said
sweetly. Link pulled out a chair for Zelda and then sat next to her. Impa
returned and told everyone that breakfast would be served soon.

“We’ll give you all the help you
need,” offered the king. “Feel free to use one of our horses.” He looked over
at Zelda. “Are you going with him?”

“Yeah, I want to, but... I don’t
think I have the strength and coordination to ride a horse today.”

“It’s okay, you can ride with me,”
Link said. “Neither of us is heavy, and your horses are strong, two people can
fit easily. I don’t want you to get hurt or anything.”

“That’s fine then,” said Zelda.
“Let’s eat something and then we can go.”

The man in the cloak finally reached the entrance to the Kokiri Forest.
It took him about two and a half hours to get there, which was good
time considering the weather. He walked through the hollow to the bridge,
climbed over the side, and dropped down. He knew his way around the
Kokiri Forest, and he could easily hide out in the Lost Woods until Link arrived.
He
knew that Link would arrive later in the day, but he wouldn’t be alone. The
hard part would be to get Link alone.

Link borrowed a thick winter coat and
boots for his quick journey to the Lon Lon ranch. Zelda changed into a sweater and
pair of
pants, with a thick coat and cloak over that. “Are you ready to go now?” asked
Link. Zelda nodded. Link took her hand and they walked out the rear entrance of
the castle to the stables. The workers gave Link weird looks, but quickly
stiffened and tried to look more productive when they realized that the
princess was with him.

“We can take my horse,” Zelda
suggested. They walked over to one of the stables, which housed a
majestic-looking white mare. She had gotten the horse five years ago after her
previous one became too old to work. The new horse was young, and eager to
please. When the horse saw Zelda, it neighed at her. Zelda rubbed the horse’s
muzzle affectionately. “Her name is Honeycomb. She’s strong and fast, I think
you’ll like riding her.”

Link expertly saddled the horse and
prepared it for riding. Honeycomb seemed to like him, and didn’t show any signs
of uneasiness, so Link mounted it. He gave Zelda a hand and she sat behind him.
It was a tight fit, but wasn’t too uncomfortable. She wrapped her arms around
Link’s waist and told him she was ready to go. “Okay, let’s see how good this
horse is,” Link said, and he led the horse out of the stable and toward the
castle gates.

Malon was busy tending to the horses in the stable,
making sure they were fed and watered. She hated wintertime from a working
perspective because it took much more effort to keep the animals warm. She
checked the fire in the stove in the corner to make sure it had enough wood to
last a few hours. Most of the horses had blankets, except a couple that were too
stubborn to wear them. When she was satisfied that everything was good, she left
the stable to go back into her warm house for some relaxation. She could rest
for a while now that her morning chores were done.

The ranch had expanded significantly over the years, and
they’d even built another small cottage on the land to house Malon and Solo.
Malon entered her house and took off her boots and coat. “Solo, are you up?” she
called. There was no answer, so she went to check the bedroom. It was almost one
o’clock , but sometimes Solo would sleep all day, depending on what she had been
doing the day before. But Solo hadn’t been up late working herself half to death
like she did sometimes, so she shouldn’t be in bed. Malon checked the bedroom,
and it was empty. Malon knew where Solo was now. At the other side of the house
was a small room that they called “the shrine.” Malon opened the door, and sure
enough, Solo was in there. The room was dimly lit with candles and the smell of
incense wafted through the air. At the head of the room was an altar topped with
symbols of the Triforce, copies of holy relics, prayer books, and over a dozen
of Solo’s personal sacrifices. Solo was kneeling in front of the altar, her eyes
closed and head bowed, reciting prayers in Ancient Hylian.

Solo was in deep concentration, but was aware enough to
know that Malon had cracked open the door. Solo finished her final prayer and
stood up. She blew out the candles and put out the incense. They both left the
shrine and sat in front of the fireplace. “Were you in there all morning?” Malon
asked. Solo went in there every day to pray, but normally didn’t spend more than
ten or fifteen minutes there. Occasionally Solo would get an urge to spend hours
praying, and Malon left her alone.

“Yeah. I’ve had this strange feeling since last night,
and I was asking for guidance.”

“What kind of strange feeling?” Solo had many different
“strange feelings”, and Malon had no idea which one she meant.

Solo’s brow furrowed. “I don’t really know.” She
shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not something bad...at least I don’t think so. But
I don’t know if it’s a good thing either.”

“Does it remind you of anything?” Malon asked. Sometimes
it helped when Solo compared it to past experiences.

“Now that I think about it...” Solo trailed off and
shook her head. “No, it can’t be. You’d laugh at me.”

“I wouldn’t laugh at you, Angel.”

“Okay, I’ll tell you what the feeling reminds me of.
It’s just like when met Link, when I found out he was my brother. It’s like I’m
sensing his feelings. I can feel love and concern, like he’s terribly worried
about me. I even dreamed about him last night. But it was weird, because I
wasn’t in it, it was like I was watching him from afar. Link was lost in some
kind of strange land, and he didn’t know how he got there. He was confused. He
tried to find answers, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t find his way. And that was
it.”

Solo was on the verge of tears, so Malon pulled her into
a tight hug. “I know you miss him,” Malon said. “I don’t know if we’ll ever find
out what happened to him. But I’ll always be here to help you through
anything.”

Solo choked back a sob. “I think we’re going to find out
what happened to him, and I’m worried that it’ll be bad.” She sniffled a little
and whimpered. “I don’t want to end up finding his dead body somewhere.”

“What if your dream is right? Maybe he is lost
somewhere. If he is, he’ll find a way back. Link would never leave you on
purpose.”

Solo’s head shot up and she looked to be in deep
concentration. “I think Zelda’s coming,” Solo said. “I can hear her horse.”

Malon was always amazed by Solo’s exceptional hearing.
She learned long ago that Solo could hear things that others didn’t. Malon
didn’t even bother to ask is Solo was sure; she went to the door and opened it
to see if Zelda had arrived. Malon saw Zelda’s horse, but was confused when she
saw a man riding it. When the horse turned she saw that Zelda was indeed on the
horse, sitting behind the man. As the horse came closer, she could’ve sworn that
the man riding it was Link. But that wasn’t even possible. Perhaps it was a
guard or something who came as an escort.

The horse stopped in the stable and the man, followed by
Zelda, took it inside. Malon stepped back into the house and looked at Solo.
“It’s Zelda, but she was riding with some man.”

Solo gave a confused look. “Some man? Do you know who he
is?”

“No, I can’t tell from here.” Malon looked outside again
to see Zelda jogging towards the house, with the man chasing after her. Malon
gasped loudly, not believing her eyes. But she was absolutely certain when he
came close enough for her to make out his features; it was Link. “Dear
goddesses!” she shrieked. “It’s Link!”

“What? You’re joking!”

“No, I’m serious,” Malon insisted.

Solo jumped up and ran past Malon and out the door. She
stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Link, in the flesh, coming toward her.
Zelda stopped at her side, a huge smile plastered on her face. “It’s really
him,” Zelda said.

Solo took off and ran the rest of the distance to Link.
She tackled him in a hug, and almost knocked him over. “Oh Link!” Solo squealed.
“You’re back! I knew you’d come back.”

“Can we go inside?” Link asked, barely able to
breathe.

“Oh! Oh yes. I’m sorry.” Solo looked at him excitedly.
“Come in and see our house. I’m sure you’ll love it.” Link followed her inside,
then hung up his coat and took off his boots. But before he could look around,
Solo hugged him again. “The goddesses finally heard my prayers. I missed you so
much. I love you.” She kissed him on the cheek. “Where have you been? Were you
kidnapped? Did you get lost in some other world? Because I had this dream last
night that you were lost in a strange place and couldn’t find your way back.
What happened to you?”

Link had trouble understanding her because everything
came out in one long, uninterrupted sentence. He didn’t think she even took a
breath. “I don’t know what happened,” Link answered simply. “I don’t know where
I’ve been for the last ten years.”

Solo looked at him strangely. “You mean...you have no
memory of what happened to you?”

“I don’t even know exactly what happened. I woke up in
an alley last night, and found out that ten years have gone by.”

Malon poked Solo to get her attention. “Solo, look
closely at him.”

Solo looked him up and down, scrutinizing every detail.
Then she understood. “You haven’t changed at all,” Solo mumbled. “I can’t
believe it.”

“All of you are older than me now. I don’t know how this
happened. I skipped over ten years. Everyone’s different, and I missed so much
of your lives. I don’t know how to begin to start over.”

Solo hugged Link again and tried to soothe him. “It’s
going to be all right now. This is a miracle; the goddesses have answered my
prayers. After you were gone, I helped Zelda in the search. But after a while,
it became fruitless. I went to the temple to try to find some solace. A priest
there helped me. He taught me about the three goddesses and how nothing is
impossible with them. You’ve even spoken to them. I figured that if you were
special enough for them to talk to you directly, then maybe they’ll hear
me.”

“I didn’t know you were so faithful,” Link said.

“I wasn’t at first,” Solo replied. “But the priest told
me that if I had faith, then everything would work out in the end. I prayed for
you everyday, Link. I prayed for you to come back to us, or if that wasn’t
possible, that you were safe. I learned all the Ancient Hylian prayers and
incantations. I can read and speak the language now. I’ve done every single
thing in the ancient traditions: I fasted, I performed works of charity, and I
made personal sacrifices.”

Link noticed that when Solo mentioned personal
sacrifices, Malon’s face fell. He looked at her with a questioning gaze. “What’s
wrong?” he asked.

“The personal sacrifices,” Malon whispered. “The blood
sacrifice.”

Link’s eyes widened. “What? Blood sacrifice!”

“Calm down Link,” Solo said. “I only did that once.”

“What is a blood sacrifice?” Link asked, his voice
cracking. The mere mention of his sister and some kind of blood sacrifice made
his heart race with worry.

“It was a last resort,” Solo continued. “I read some
ancient books about prayers and stuff. One of the things I saw was rituals to
save a loved one. The book talked about personal sacrifices. I you offer up a
possession that is dear to you, then that shows selflessness and the goddesses
reward selflessness. The book said that the most potent personal sacrifice was
blood. So I tried it.”

Link looked almost frantic with worry. He remembered
what Zelda had done to herself when she thought he’d died, and he was afraid
that Solo had done the same thing. “I know what you’re thinking,” said Solo. “I
didn’t try to kill myself. I made a little cut on the palm of my hand and
dripped some blood onto a smaller personal sacrifice.”

“I wasn’t exactly thrilled when she did that,” Malon
said.

“I only did it once. All I wanted was for you to be
safe. It was a little cut, nothing major.”

“What was this other personal sacrifice?” Link asked.

“It was my hair.” That explained it. He was surprised
when he first saw Solo, because her hair was barely shoulder-length. He didn’t
want to mention it in case it had been a traumatic experience. Now he knew why.
“I had to sacrifice something that was dear to me, so I chose my hair.”

“You cut it off for me?” Link didn’t know what to think.
He knew that she had a rather unusual emotional attachment to her hair. Washing
and brushing it was an almost religious ritual for her. He felt bad that she
believed she had to do something like that.

“Don’t feel guilty. It was my choice, and it wouldn’t
have been a sacrifice if I gave up something I didn’t care about. My hair isn’t
really gone, it’s in the shrine. I keep it as a reminder to be pious and
faithful. And it all paid off. I’m so happy.” She hugged and squeezed him again.
“All my prayers have been answered. You’re safe and sound. All that matters is
that you’re here, we can worry about everything else later. I love you so much,
and I missed you.”

“What’s this shrine?” Link asked.

Solo pointed to a door. “It’s that room over there. It’s
where I say my prayers. Come see it.” Link followed her into the little room and
gasped at what he saw. Her little altar was one of the most elaborate things
he’d ever seen. There were candles everywhere, little statues on the altar, and
paintings on the walls. At the center of the altar was Solo’s cut hair, tied
with a ribbon. He looked closely and saw the dried blood stain on it. Folded
neatly under the altar was some green cloth, which Link realized was his
clothes. Solo saw his confusion. “I created this altar to the goddesses as was
prescribed in the Book of Mudora. It also said that when praying for someone,
placing an object of theirs under the altar will help. I did a lot of things
that seemed weird, but I figured that it couldn’t hurt. The most important thing
was having faith in the goddesses. Physical objects were there just to help me
keep focus.”

“I’m impressed,” Link said. “It’s really
nice.”

Solo bent over and retrieved Link’s clothes from under
the altar. She handed him the neatly-folded pile. “Here, I don’t need them
anymore. And I’m sure you feel weird wearing those strange clothes. You can
change in my bedroom. Don’t worry, they’re clean. I wash them every now and then
to get rid of the dust.”

They left the shrine and Zelda smiled when she saw Link
holding his old clothes. “Oh goodie. I wanted to see you in your regular
clothes. It’s weird seeing you in something else.”

Link agreed. Although his borrowed clothes were
comfortable, he still preferred to wear his own. Link went to the bedroom
to change and closed the door behind him. “It’s so great to see him alive and
well,” Malon said to break the awkward silence. “I always had hope, but I
thought we’d never see him again. But how could he be the same age as when he
left? That’s not possible.”

“I don’t know,” Zelda said with a shrug. “He just woke
up in an alley last night. He’s determined to find out what caused this. He
skipped ten years, how does something like that happen?”

“I can tell you one thing: it wasn’t supposed to happen
this way,” said Solo. “It wasn’t an accident, or some freak of nature. Someone
deliberately did this, and did it with evil intentions. I can feel it. This
isn’t over. Whoever did this to Link is going to find out he’s here, and that
will only make things worse.”

The others mulled over what Solo said, and no one could
think of anything to say. Then Link came out of the bedroom dressed in his usual
clothes, minus his hat. “I seem to be missing my hat,” Link said, running his
hand through his hair. “I feel weird without it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Linkie-pooh,” said Zelda, her cheeks
tinged slightly pink. “I forgot it at home. It was under my pillow.”

“Well, that’s okay, I have more at home-assuming that my
stuff is still there.”

“Everything is intact,” Solo said. “We left everything
the way it was for when you came back. Well...it’s not exactly how it was. Zelda
borrowed your blanket and pillow, and Saria insisted on putting everything in
drawers. But other than that, all your stuff is fine.”

“Solo, tell Link what you said earlier,” Malon
suggested.

Link looked at Solo to elaborate. “I’m sure you feel it,
Link, deep down inside. This isn’t right. Someone evil is behind what happened
to you. I don’t know what it is, but I’m afraid that it will destroy everything
we’ve gained.”

“I know what you’re talking about,” Link admitted. “I
didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to interrupt our happy
reunion. But I have a hunch that somebody with bad intentions did this. I will find out.”

“We need to go see Saria,” said Solo. “Of all people, I
think she misses you the most. She’s known you the longest, it’s only natural.
She hides her pain well, but I can tell. The other Kokiri miss you too. You’re
like a big brother to all of them.”

“Every meal she sets a place for you at her table,”
Zelda said, a tear running down her cheek.

Link imagined his best friend hoping every night that he
would come back, then crying when he didn’t. Saria must’ve been heartbroken not
knowing what happened to him or why. “I have to see her. Can we go now?”

“Yes, let’s go,” Solo said happily. They all put on
their coats, boots, and gloves. As Link was about to walk out the door, Malon
stopped him and handed him a carrot. He gave her a confused look.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“It’s for Epona. She’ll be so happy to see you.”

Link’s eyes lit up. “Epona? She’s still alive?”

“Of course she is, horses live for twenty-five or thirty
years. She’s only sixteen. She’s got lots of good years left. But, I know this
sounds silly,” she gave a nervous chuckle, “but she’s been sad since you left.
She rarely lets us ride her. And one time she jumped the fence and we thought
she ran away. It turns out that she went to the Kokiri forest looking for you.
I’ve never seen a horse that clever.”

Link had the expression of an excited child and he ran
out to the stables to see his horse. He saw Epona’s head and distinctive mane
sticking out of the stall at the end of the stable. He didn’t have his ocarina
to play her song, so he let out a distinctive whistle that he used to call her
when she wasn’t far away. Epona’s ears perked up and she looked around
frantically. When she saw Link walk up to her, Epona neighed and stood on her
hind legs, hopping up and down a couple times. Link went up to his horse and
affectionately rubbed her muzzle and neck. She rubbed up against him and even
licked him a couple of times. He fed her the carrot, which she devoured quickly.
“Oh, Epona, I’m so sorry,” Link said in a high-pitched, baby voice. “You must’ve
missed me. I’m back, and I won’t go anywhere.” He opened the door to the stall,
and Epona went right past him and stopped right next to the saddles. She was
definitely eager for a ride. Link fastened the saddle and reins, and led her
outside, where everyone was waiting.

“I knew she’d be happy to see you,” Malon said with a
smile. “So what are we going to do? Zelda, are you up to riding?”

She nodded. “I think I can handle it now. I feel a lot
better than before.”

“Great, then let’s get going,” Solo said.

Saria didn’t feel like doing her normal chores for the
day. Sometimes she would just lie in bed all day and stare at the ceiling. She
wasn’t in bed now, but wasn’t doing anything constructive either. Many of the
other Kokiri were outside having fun; they threw snowballs at each other, and
attempted to build snowmen, but the snow was too thin and powdery. The snowballs
weren’t turning out too well either. Saria would’ve liked to join them, but she
didn’t feel up to it. This was one of those days when she didn’t feel like doing
anything.

Saria got up and threw another log into the stove to
keep the fire going. It was late afternoon, and she would normally make a light
dinner about this time. She wasn’t too hungry, but could stand to eat something.
She decided to make oatmeal with some dried apples. As usual, she set a place
for Link, even though he wouldn’t be there.

Saria sat down to her small meal and ate it slowly. She
couldn’t even taste the food; either that, or she didn’t care. Link was all she
could think about today. Everyone else was having fun, and that reminded her of
the carefree days she and Link had together when he was a child. Those should’ve
been happy memories, but her loneliness couldn’t be fixed. She didn’t want to
cry, but she couldn’t help it. Saria put her head on the table and sobbed. She
would’ve given anything to have someone to talk to, someone who would
understand. The other Kokiri wouldn’t understand.

Her misery was interrupted when the telltale sound of
hooves reached her ears. Somebody was coming, maybe Zelda, or Solo and Malon. At
least she had someone to talk to now. She waited expectantly for one of her
friends to greet her. Malon and Solo walked inside and greeted her. Saria hugged
Solo. “I’m so glad you came,” Saria said, trying to hide the fact that she’d
been crying. “I was so lonely.” Zelda walked in a moment later and Saria’s smile
grew. “It’s a family reunion!” Saria went over to Zelda and hugged her as
well.

Saria froze completely when a familiar voice greeted
her. “Hi Saria,” said Link. She stared at him, dumbfounded. She must’ve finally
gone crazy. She dreamed and hoped that Link would come back that she finally
lost her mind. That had to be it. Link was confused at Saria’s lack of a
response, so he kneeled down and embraced her.

Saria stiffened noticeably and looked up at him with
total shock. “You’re real!” she exclaimed. Saria jumped towards him and returned
the embrace, knocking him flat on his back. “You came back for me.” She kissed
him at least a dozen times all over his face. “I missed you so much. I missed
our meals together; I missed talking to you especially. No one else here
understands things like you do. Where have you been?”

Every time he heard that question, it still threw him
for a loop. He didn’t understand what had happened, but he still had to explain
what he knew. “I don’t really know. I woke up in an alley in the town last
night, and I found out that I skipped ten years. Time passed for everyone else,
but not for me. I suspect that evil forces are behind this. But every time I’ve
fought a battle, I knew who my enemy was. I don’t know this time.”

“Something bad is going to happen, isn’t it?” Saria said
sadly.

“I don’t know that for sure. All I want right now is to
continue my life. I want things to be normal again.”

Saria didn’t need an explanation of how Link felt; it
was plain as day. He felt so confused and upset about the situation. Saria knew
that everyone’s emotions were hitting him hard. He always sensed other people’s
feelings on an almost supernatural level, and he took them as a burden to
protect others. He was doing it right now, she could tell. He’d woken up in a
strange new world, and he was already taking responsibility for things. That was
the Link she knew.

“Then let’s be normal for one night,” Saria said
happily. “We can have a nice dinner, and do things how we used to.” Saria busily
went to work gathering supplies to make a meal for five.

Malon revealed a basket that held some fresh vegetables,
fruit, bread dough, and chicken. She made sure to have a nice assortment of food
for Saria, especially because she didn’t like meat. “I figured this would
happen, so I brought food for everyone,” Malon said. Saria smiled, and she and
Malon went to work preparing the meal. Link, Zelda, and Solo watched and helped
when they could, but none were very adept at cooking.

“I want this to last forever,” Link said.

“Me too,” said Zelda, leaning her head on his
shoulder.

Link and his friends and family enjoyed themselves
greatly during their reunion. It was late at night, and everyone was ready to go
home. Because it was so cold outside, Zelda, Solo, and Malon had to go home to
make sure their horses were taken care of. Not long before Link had disappeared,
he’d built a small one-horse stable to house Epona when he had her in the
forest. He even built a fireplace to keep her warm on cold nights, even though
Epona was hardy enough to sleep comfortably with nothing other than a horse
blanket. Link fed his horse and pampered her a little before he left for Saria’s
house once again. The others had left for another reason as well: they wanted to
give Link private time with his closest and oldest friend. Saria had taken his
disappearance the hardest, and she needed the time alone with him to heal.

“That was really nice,” Saria said when Link reentered
her house to finish cleaning up. “Do you think that our lives will return to
normal?”

“I really hope so,” he said, sitting next to her and
pulling her close. “I want to find out who is behind this, but that can wait for
now.”

“All of us can work on that together. If anyone can
figure it out, it’s you. I have faith in you. I love you so much, Link.”

Link hugged her gently and patted her head. “I love you
too. We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”

Saria smiled and stood up. She went to her dresser and
pulled out some blankets and a pillow. “Here. Since Zelda has your stuff, you
can use my extra blankets. I can tell you’re exhausted; you need your
sleep.”

Link couldn’t argue with her; she was right. Sleeping in
his own bed, especially after such a traumatic experience, would help him feel
better. He took the bedclothes and kissed Saria on the forehead. “Goodnight,
Saria. I love you.” Saria kissed him back, and he left her house for his
own.

He climbed the ladder to his house, and went inside. His
first duty was to start a fire to keep warm through the night. His house was
exactly as he had left it, except without the usual clutter. He started the fire
quickly, then went about preparing his bed. He waited for his tiny house to heat
up, which didn’t take very long, before he undressed. Link was about to lie on
his bed when he heard a creak on the balcony outside. “Saria, is that you?” he
asked. There was no response. Link had excellent hearing, and he knew by the
sound of the creak that there was someone standing outside, but because of the
curtain over the doorway, he couldn’t see. “Who’s there?” he said in a clear,
stern voice. Just to be careful, he pulled on of his swords from its place on
the wall, and stood ready to do battle.

“Stand down,” said a voice from outside. “I mean you no
harm.” The voice sounded oddly familiar, but Link couldn’t place it.

“Show yourself,” Link commanded. “I’m armed and I will
attack you if I have to.”

A man, about Link’s size, entered his house slowly. His
arms were in front of him, and his hands were empty. “I’m not armed, and I am
not here to hurt you.” The man was wearing a thick brown cloak, with a large
hood over his head, obscuring his features.

“Who are you, and why are you trespassing?” Link
growled, standing in a defensive stance, ready to attack at any hint of
aggression.

The man in the cloak slowly walked past Link and sat
down on Solo’s bed. “I told you that I’m not here to hurt you. I know you’re
skeptical, and I understand. I won’t do anything to provoke you.”

There was something familiar about this man, but Link
wasn’t going to take any chances. The man wisely kept his hands visible and
didn’t make any sudden moves. Link relaxed his body and sat down on his bed,
still ready to fight at a moment’s notice. “You’re in the wrong place, mister,”
Link said firmly. “This forest isn’t for outsiders. You can get lost or hurt.
You should leave.”

“Don’t worry about me,” said the man. “I’m really here
about you.”

“Stop avoiding my questions. Tell me who you are, or
you’ll be sorry you every step foot here.”

Link narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard that before. I’ve
seen a lot of things that no one would ever dream of. But I am not going to
trust some strange man who just broke into my house.”

“Link, all of this useless talk will get us nowhere. I
have something important to tell you, and not a lot of time.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Because I know you through and through,” the man
replied. “We’re the same flesh and blood.” He slowly moved his hands to pull his
cloak off, and Link readied himself for attack. As soon as the cloak was off the
man put his hands on the bed, and kept them away from his body. Link stared at
the man in shock. The face looked so familiar. If the man had been thirty years
younger, he could’ve passed as his double. But other features didn’t match, the
most obvious was a black patch over his right eye. It probably hid a horrendous
wound, because Link could see a huge vertical scar that ran from the man’s
scalp, through his eye, and down to his chin. The man’s hair was a sandy blonde
color, streaked with gray.

“You look familiar,” Link said, trying to think of who
this could be. “Are you the one responsible for my being here? Did you screw up
my life?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m here to do the exact opposite. A
couple years from now, things are going to change drastically. I know, because
I’ve already lived through it. I suffered greatly, and I’m here to stop that
from happening to you.”

“And how do you know what’s going to happen to me?” Link
asked sarcastically. “I’ve met fortune tellers before, and all they know about
the future is that the sun will rise tomorrow. So forgive me if I don’t quite
believe you.”

“I know what’s going to happen to you because I am you. I’m forty-five years old now, but I’m still
you. I guess I’m what you will be.”

Link shook his head. “Just because you come into my
house and claim to be me doesn’t mean I’ll believe you. I can see a slight
resemblance, but nothing major.”

“I’ll prove it to you,” the man said confidently. He
took his gloves off and showed Link the back of his left hand. A few seconds
later, a dim ethereal glow in the shape of the Triforce appeared. “Remember
this?” Link stared at the man’s hand, dumbfounded. No one other than Zelda even
knew about the glowing Triforce on his hand. “I don’t have to tell you what this
means. It’s easy to control, just like breathing. You’ve never shown this to
anyone but Zelda. And I know it doesn’t mean much, since all it represents is a
false relic. But there’s still power in it.”

Link shook his head. “It’s got to be some kind of trick.
I don’t believe you.”

“What’s so hard to believe? You just woke up ten years
in the future, and your friends believed you. Why won’t you believe me? If you
can skip over ten years, who’s to say that I can’t go back thirty years?”

Link had to admit that the man’s story was convincing.
“I need more proof,” Link demanded.

The man sighed in frustration. “I should’ve know that
you’d be this stubborn. I guess I forgot. A lot can change in thirty years.” The
man tried to think of something that would convince himself if the situation was
reversed. “Let’s see...I--or you--or maybe we--have
a birthmark. It’s reddish-brown, and looks kind of like a butterfly. It’s right
above the left side of your butt.”

Link laughed nervously. “Birthmark, huh? What, have you
been watching me bathe? Pervert.” The man turned around and pushed the waist of
his pants just low enough for Link to see the mark.

Link cringed. “Fine, I’ll believe that. But I don’t know
if that’s real or not, you could’ve put it there for all I know.”

“All right, then let’s move on to things that only you
would know, things that you never told anyone else.” The older man thought for a
moment, searching for the most private and embarrassing moment that he would
never dream of telling another living soul about. “Okay. How about in your
alternate future, when you were sealed in the Sacred Realm for seven years and
woke up as an adult.”

“I remember that,” Link said. “But my friends know about
that too.”

“That’s true. But there are things you didn’t tell
anyone about. Remember the first time you went to pee? I thought there was
something horribly wrong down there. That’s when I figured out that hair doesn’t
only grow on your head.” Link’s face turned bright red. He’d never told anyone
about that; it was a moment that he’d rather forget. But it didn’t convince him
fully, anyone could have made that logical deduction if they knew him well
enough. “I see you remember that, but you’re still not convinced. All right,
I’ll tell you about the moment you’re most ashamed of. Remember that boy Akuyo?
The one that Solo was friends with for a while? You were angry when you found
out that he hurt your sister. But you promised her that you wouldn’t do anything
to him, that you would let his parents deal with him. You broke your promise.
What he did ate at you and ate at you until you couldn’t take it anymore. You
thought about killing him, even planned what to do with the body. But no matter
how angry you were, you couldn’t bring yourself to kill a man. So you decided to
beat him up. You went to his house one day and waited for him to come out. His
parents had forced him to attend monastic classes at the temple. They didn’t
intend for him to become a monk; they wanted him to learn to be peaceful and
humble. You confronted him on his way to the temple. He knew who you were, and
apologized profusely. He swore that he would never raise his hand in anger
again. He said that he had changed, that the light of the goddesses had shown
him the way. He was geuinely sorry.”

Link hung his head in shame; he knew where this was
going. The man continued, “But that wasn’t enough for you. You didn’t want to
hear his apology. You wanted him to suffer. So while the boy stood there,
ashamed and contrite, you punched him. He didn’t retaliate, so that made you
angrier. You punched him harder and knocked him to the ground. You ended up
breaking his jaw. But Akuyo got up and thanked you for sparing his life. He said
that he’d never tell anyone about it, and that he’d say some delinquent kid
tried to rob him. He said all this even though his jaw was in excruciating
pain.”

“I don’t want to hear this,” Link choked out, trying not
to lose control of himself.

“You need to hear it to believe me. That one time in
your life, you were the bad guy. Instead of doing
the right thing, you gave into your anger and did something you’ve always
regretted. I still have nightmares about it today. Do you believe me now?”

Link nodded his head. “Yes, I believe you. I can never
forget that day.” Link relaxed and put his sword down. “If you’re from my
future, how did you get here? I used the Master Sword to travel through time,
but only my consciousness traveled, not my body.”

“That’s true,” said the older Link. “But the Master
Sword is not involved. I’ve learned a few things about time travel since then.
For one, a person cannot travel to a time when he would encounter himself.
That’s why when you used the Master Sword, you couldn’t travel to any times
other than when you replaced or removed the sword. You created a connection
between two moments in time. Only your mind moved between times, not your body.
The Master Sword was a special example. It wasn’t actually time travel as I
learned later. It was merely a mental conduit between two moments in your life.
Real time travel doesn’t work that way; it involves physical movement of a
person’s body from one time to another.”

“Then how are you here?” Link asked. “You said you
couldn’t encounter yourself traveling through time. How can you be here?”

Older Link grinned and held up his index finger. “That’s
an excellent point. I shouldn’t be here, but I am. The only reason I can be here is because you’re not supposed to be here
either. You should be twenty-six years old, but that version of us doesn’t exist
in this time. You were taken from your normal timeline and accidentally dumped
here. The principles that work behind time travel are far too complicated for me
to understand. The best I can understand is that every person has a kind of
energy field around him, a sort of ‘time aura’. It’s part of your consciousness
and your soul, but this part only has to do with time. The time aura is why you
cannot visit yourself in a different time. The two auras cannot exist
simultaneously. But our case is different. When you travel to a different time,
your aura stays in step with the time you came from, so your aura is different
from everyone else’s. Your aura won’t interfere with people native to the time
you traveled from, unless you go to a time when your other self is alive. Since
your other self is native to that time, it will push you back to where you came
from.”

Link tried to follow what his older self said, and he
felt confident that he understood it. “Okay, I can understand that,” said the
younger Link.

“The native time aura is why we can both be here at the
same time,” older Link explained. “Like I said earlier, the Link from this time,
who’s supposed to be twenty-six, is not here. There is no Link native to this
time. Neither of our auras match this time, so we can both be here. That is why
I chose now to come back.”

“Okay, that explains how you can be here,” younger Link said, “but it doesn’t
explain why you’re here. You said that something bad
was going to happen in a couple years. Is that why you’re here?”

The older Link looked sad, and nodded. “Yes, that’s
exactly why I’m here. But ‘bad’ doesn’t even begin to describe it. You have
never encountered anything on the scale of what will happen in the near future.
In about two years, a bizarre plague will start in Hyrule, and spread to the
entire world.”

“How can I possibly stop a plague?” younger Link
asked.

“Because it’s not natural. Someone deliberately created
and distributed it. A lot of people died.” He paused and hung his head, trying
to compose himself. He looked back at the younger Link with tears in his eyes.
“It started in the Kokiri Forest ...it killed all of them. Saria was the first
to go. She died in my arms. The Kokiri did nothing to deserve to die like that!
Then the plague spread like wildfire. Most of the Zoras died, the Gorons, and
many Hylians. About a month after it started, the plague vanished as
mysteriously as it had appeared. The country was in shambles. Zelda’s father
died in the plague, so she was crowned queen. She did a good job rebuilding
Hyrule. It was hard, but we did it.”

“The Kokiri all died?” younger Link asked sadly. He was
on the verge of tears, but held it in.

The older Link nodded. “I learned later that this plague
was designed to kill mostly non-human species. Most Hylians and Gerudos survived
the plague; it killed about one in ten of us. It killed ninety-nine out of a
hundred of non-humans. But we later found out the true scope of the plague. What
made us suspicious was when Zelda and I got married. We tried to start a family,
but couldn’t. One or both of us were barren. Then word gradually came in from
all the areas affected by the plague. Although most humans survived it, everyone
got sick from it. We discovered that anyone who got sick couldn’t have children
afterwards. Even couples that had children before couldn’t have more afterwards.
The plague killed non-human races, and made humans sterile. The entire country
was going to die out in a generation. That’s when the war started.”

Younger Link couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It
seemed that the future was so bleak that it wasn’t worth living. He wondered why
the older version of himself came back to tell him this. Perhaps it was so he
could move his friends and family out of Hyrule to save them. He wasn’t sure.
“Who would start a war under those conditions?” younger Link asked in
exasperation. “Why not wait until everyone just dies?”

“The war wasn’t just to invade Hyrule. The invaders
wanted to turn Hylians into slaves. Every other race was considered trash.”

“Who were the invaders?” young Link asked.

“Some of the invaders were Gerudo, most of the rest were
Hyrulian citizens. At first, we thought it was some kind of civil war or
attempted revolution, but it wasn’t that simple. The people who attacked did it
under the influence of evil spirits. The masterminds took control of ordinary
people using a combination of mind control and some kind of addictive potion.
They called the potion the ‘nectar of the gods.’ Whoever took it gained enormous
strength and stamina; they needed very little food, water, and sleep. They were
machines. The nectar also made them more susceptible to mind control. This drug
created the perfect soldier; they were strong, loyal, and couldn’t live without
the drug.

“I don’t think I need to tell you that Hyrule had no
chance. I led the troops into battle. My people fought hard, but everyone knew
it was a lost cause. There were too many enemies, and they were too strong. Even
worse was that they used our own soldiers against us. People who had mortal
wounds, and some who had actually died could be saved with the nectar. Then they
fought against us. Their army grew, and ours shrank. But no one gave up; all of
my men fought to the death for a war they couldn’t possibly win. I was literally
the last man standing. I was ready to meet my fate with the rest of my soldiers,
but I wasn’t so lucky.”

“Who did this?” younger Link whispered, afraid that if
he talked any louder he would break down.

The older Link gave a hateful scowl. “Oh, I’ll get to
that. As I said, I was the last soldier standing. They took me prisoner. I was
turned into a slave like everyone else. I expected to be put to work, but my
fate was far worse. Some goons took me into the castle, which had become the new
capital for the invading army. They threw me into what used to be the ballroom.
They had turned it into some kind of torture arena. It was horrible, blood and
body parts were everywhere.

“That’s when I found the leader of the invaders. It was
a Gerudo woman named Koros. She was the one behind everything. Then she...” he
choked up and tried to keep his composure. “They dragged Solo, Malon, and Zelda
in front of me. I thought they were safe. I had hidden them with the Guardians.
But they were all killed and my family was taken hostage. It was obvious that
they’d been beaten. They screamed at me for help, but I couldn’t do anything.
There was a large iron chair in the middle of the room and they’d strapped me to
it. Then they nailed my hands and feet down. I tried everything I could, but
nothing worked. I couldn’t teleport myself anywhere, I couldn’t use magic or
sheer will. I was helpless.”

Tears flowed from the older Link’s remaining eye, and he
continued, “There was nothing I could do. One by one, they dragged the people I
love in front of me. Then that bitch murdered them. She ran Malon through with a
sword and spilled her guts on the floor. The she murdered Solo by cutting her
throat. Then Zelda...she stabbed her with a dagger dozens of times. I saw the
only people I ever loved murdered in cold blood!”

“I don’t want to hear anymore,” younger Link cried. He
felt sick to his stomach; he wanted to vomit and cry at the same time. “Why are
you telling me this?”

“Because you have to know!” the older Link
scolded. “I never thought it could get any worse after that, but it did. I
would’ve given anything to just die on the spot, but they wouldn’t let me.
Koros, that horrible, filthy slut wouldn’t let me die. She used me as her
personal plaything. She liked to whip and beat me for fun. She gouged my eye out
because she said I looked at her the wrong way. But the worst was the way she
touched me. She raped me more times than I could count. I couldn’t fight her
off; she gave me drugs that would...would enable her to have her way with me,
even though I wasn’t willing. My body wouldn’t listen to me. The feeling of
being used like that.... I can’t describe it; nothing can describe the shame and
humiliation. I wanted to die so much, but I had to get revenge.”

“Please tell me it doesn’t get worse,” younger Link
begged.

The older Link shook his head. “No, nothing could be
worse than that. But I got the upper hand eventually. It took a long time. The
war started about ten years from now. I was that woman’s sex slave for fifteen
years after that. But I was able to escape. It was pure luck. You see, that mind
control nectar was extracted from a rare kind of plant. It’s very hard to find,
and producing the drug was very difficult and time-consuming. There was a long
drought, and the plants mostly died off. Their stockpiles ran low, and their
army started dying. Once someone starts taking the nectar, they will die if they
quit.

“Koros’s soldiers were dying out. Even her most loyal
followers left her. They were those evil spirits I mentioned. They inhabit
healthy people and take over their bodies. But when it was apparent that Koros
was losing control, they left back to where they’d come from. I saw my chance
and I took it. I organized a rebellion among the slaves, the ones whose minds
weren’t taken over. We killed the rest of the super-soldiers, and I captured my
prize. I had Koros in my possession. Once she was taken captive, she lost
control of her soldiers, and they all committed suicide. It had taken about
sixteen years, but we won the war. And I would have my revenge.

“I had it all planned out. The people wanted me to rule
them, but I declined. I couldn’t be a ruler. My final revenge was supposed to be
my final peace. The next morning I was going to execute her personally. I was
going to give her a death that would make what happened to Malon, Solo, and
Zelda pale in comparison. Then after that, I would return home to the Kokiri
Forest. I was going to sit in front of the dead Great Deku Tree, where I had
buried all the Kokiri, and kill myself. Once I’d gotten my revenge, I could die
in peace. After all, I had nothing else to live for.”

“I take it that things didn’t go as planned,” younger
Link said.

Older Link smiled darkly. “Things changed. I had a
dream. In this dream I saw myself. It was like us right now. I was speaking to a
younger version of myself. He told me that he could help me, that things could
be fixed. I don’t know what changed in me, but I had a new will to live. I
needed to find out why Koros did what she did. She wouldn’t give up her
information easily, so I did the only thing I could: I tortured her. You
wouldn’t believe how good it felt to make her suffer for her sins. I knew that
by what I was doing, I was sinking to her level. But I didn’t care. It felt too
good. It took a year, but I got the information I needed.

“She wasn’t just some crazy Gerudo bent on world
domination. She was working for Ganondorf.”

Young Link’s eyes went wide. “But I took care of him!
He’s sealed in the Sacred Realm, never to escape.”

“You’re forgetting that the power of that Sacred Realm
is limited, just as the power of the false Triforce is limited. It’s only a
matter of time before he escapes and is reincarnated to wreak havoc.”

“So what does this Koros have to do with it?” young Link
asked.

“She was Ganondorf’s lover and most loyal follower. From
what I could extract from her, she was peparing Hyrule for his return. Those
evil spirits that took over people’s bodies were the remains of his loyal
followers. They came from your timeline and the alternate one. Together with
Koros, they would break the seal on the Door of Time and free Ganondorf from the
false Sacred Realm. That was her plan, but she didn’t count on one factor:
me.”

“So you stopped her plan from coming to fruition?” young
Link asked.

“I did it without even knowing it. My mere presence
threw off her plan. I wondered for so long why I skipped ten years of my life.
It took a lot of torture, but I found out. She knew that I would fight her and
screw up her plans. She tried to remove me from the timeline. My possession of
the Triforce of Courage, even if it was the false one, would prevent her from
going through with her plans. The other two Triforce pieces had to be free so
she could capture them and use them to break the seal to the Sacred Realm. She
figured that she could simply kill Zelda to extract her piece. But I was a
different story.

“I have knowledge of both timelines, and somehow that
connects me to both worlds. If I was killed, then the Triforce would migrate to
the future I left behind, and would be taken over by another hero. The only way
that I could be taken out of the equation was to remove me from time
itself.”

“How did she plan on doing it?” young Link asked.
Without the Master Sword and Spiritual Stones, Koros shouldn’t have been able to
mess with the fabric of time.

“She discovered a time device. It’s in a very deep
cavern, near the Temple of Truth in Kataan. Nobody knows who built it, or how
long it’s been there. It was so well hidden that the Guardians didn’t even know
of its existence. How Koros and Ganondorf discovered it, I’ll never know. But
she wasn’t smart enough, she didn’t know how to use the device. The device has
the capability of removing a person from time, but it can also enable people to
travel through time. She used the device incorrectly. Instead of removing me,
she sent me ten years into the future. And my very presence ensured that her
plans would ultimately fail.”

“I’m surprised she didn’t try to remove you again when
she found out you were still here,” younger Link said.

“It was because of my time aura. It’s a property of the
time device. You can only be removed from the timeline if your aura matches the
timeline you’re in. But mine didn’t match, so she couldn’t remove me. And
because she was native to the timeline, she couldn’t go back to fix her mistake.
And that one mistake is what gave me hope. Unfortunately, she didn’t tell me any
more. I was more than happy to kill her though.

“I had to study the time device for quite some time
before I could figure out how to use it. Koros never thought that anyone could
defeat her, so she became overconfident. She left her notes in the cavern, and I
was able to use those combined with my own knowledge to learn how to use the
time device. That’s how I managed to get here. And that’s what brings me to
you.”

The younger Link felt a headache coming on. He didn’t
think he’d ever had so much information dumped on him all at once. All this talk
about time travel, combined with the horrible tales of the future, made him want
to scream in frustration. “I don’t think I can take much more,” complained the
younger Link. “My life has turned completely upside-down by somehow traveling
ten years into the future. Then and older version of myself comes back in time
and tells me this absolutely horrible and terrifying tale of the future that
frankly makes we want to puke. And there’s still more? Can’t it wait another
day? I can barely absorb all this right now, I can’t take any more.”

The older Link stared right into young Link’s eyes.
“There is no time. I have to tell you everything right now, all at once. If you
cram it all into your head, you’ll be more likely to remember all of it when you
go back.”

“Wait a minute,” young Link interrupted. “Go back
where?”

“Go back to the time you came from. You have to stop
this from ever happening. You’re the only one who can do it.”

“What if I can’t...”

“You must!” the older Link shouted. He pointed an angry
finger at his younger self. “There is no other choice! You will do this! I saw my country destroyed, I saw my
closest friends and family horribly murdered. I was raped for years! Now I’ve
found a way to fix it all. It might not work, but any future is better than the
living hell I came from. Don’t tell me that you wouldn’t give up your life a
thousand times to save them. I would, and I know you would too.”

The younger Link sighed. “You’re right. I would. But why
me? Why can’t you do it?”

“Because, I already explained it to you. Two copies of
the same person cannot exist at the same time. I can’t go with you. You are free
to return, because your time aura will match the timeline. I have to go back
where I came from, and so do you. Everything will be up to you.”

“I’m starting to lose count of how many times that’s
happened,” the younger Link muttered. “I’ll do whatever I have to do. But I have
to say goodbye before I leave…”

“No,” the older Link interrupted. “There is no time. We
have to go to the time device and I have to explain it to you before I return to
my time. There’s no time for simple pleasantries.”

“We can’t even wait till the morning?” younger Link
asked. If he was going to travel through time, then a few extra hours shouldn’t
make much of a difference. It would also give him more time to prepare.

The older Link shook his head emphatically. “No, we
don’t have that much time. Actually, I don’t have
much time. Learning how to use the time device in such a short amount of time
took more energy than a normal person could ever have. I cheated...I used the
nectar of the gods--or more specifically--a derivative of it. It expanded my
ability to learn and understand. But I ran out of it three days ago, and just
like the other nectar, quitting it means death. It doesn’t matter now if I got
more, I’m past the point of no return. I’m dying.”

Young Link couldn’t believe it. Not only was he burdened
with preventing a horrible chain of events from occurring, the only man who
could help him was going to die. It really was all up to him. “How much longer
do you have?”

“Less than a day. Which is why time is of the essence.
We have to go now.”

Link was ready. “All right, fine. Let’s go. But it’ll
take several hours to get there by horse…”

“There’s no need for that,” older Link said. He stuck
his hand in his pocket and pulled out an oblong object. It was slightly rounded
in the back and flat on the front. The front was a shiny black with tiny
multi-colored lights. “This will take us there instantly. Think of it like
playing your ocarina to warp somewhere.” The younger Link nodded. He was ready.
“Let’s do it.” The older Link pressed him thumb to the front of the device and
there was a quiet beep. A bright glow enveloped everything around them, until
all they could see was white. Link closed his eyes instinctively. He felt a
strange tingling sensation, like his whole body was buzzing. A giant whoosh of
air followed and the buzzing stopped.

Link opened his eyes, and saw that he was no longer in
his house. He was inside a huge hemispherical dome that was at least a thousand
feet wide and several hundred feet tall. Everything was bathed in a harsh white
light that seemed to come from everywhere at once, illuminating everything
perfectly evenly. There were desks and chairs everywhere, arranged in neat rows.
Positioned on pedestals everywhere were rectangular objects that were several
feet wide, but only about an inch thick. They had the same glossy black
appearance as the older Link’s pocket device, but there were no lights on them.
What really caught Link’s attention was the giant pedestal in the center of the
room. There was a raised metal platform about forty feet in diameter surrounded
by what he could only describe as a circular shelf. The shelf was about four
feet high and almost completely surrounded the platform, save for a small gap,
presumably to let people through.

“That is the time device,” older Link said, pointing to
the platform. “The shelf surrounding it is the main control panel. It has two
hundred and fifty thousand controls. Luckily for us, only a couple hundred need
to be modified. It’s already set for me to return to my time. I will teach you
how to program it to return you to your time. I have complete notes, including
translations of numbers and words that you’ll need to know.”

He showed Link a small section of the control panel,
which was a huge array of tiny rectangular objects in slots. Each slot glowed,
some were red, and others were green. The older Link continued his explanation.
“From what I understand, these rectangles control what time the device will send
you to.” He pulled one of the rectangles out of its slot and showed it to Link.
It was mostly clear, with tiny black lines and squiggles covering it. Older Link
pointed out a square notch cut out of the rectangle. “See this little notch? If
it’s up, then the light will be green. If you turn it upside down, the light
will be red. It can be put in the hole in any direction, only the notch being up
or down makes a difference. All you have to do is rearrange these rectangles.”

The older Link unrolled a large piece of paper that was
sitting on the shelf and showed it to Link. On it was a drawing depicting the
array of rectangles, represented by red or green marks. He showed Link another
sheet that contained lists of writing in the foreign language along with the
translations. The older Link showed his younger counterpart all of the
rectangles he would have to change, and how to change them. He drilled Link on
the foreign markings, forcing him to memorize them. Link learned it quickly, and
he practiced all the changes he would have to make to send himself back in time.
It only took a couple of hours for younger Link to learn what he needed to know.

“What do I do after I get back?” younger Link asked. “Do
I have to find that woman?”

“That would be a good idea, but it isn’t the first thing
you need to do. When you’re sent back, you won’t arrive at the machine, you’ll
most likely end up somewhere near your house. It will act as a very strong
magnet to you. I don’t know why, that’s just the way it is. The good part is
that you will have more time once you get back home. Although your being
mistakenly sent to the future is the focal point of the whole series of events,
it’s not the key event. She will use the machine again, but not for time travel.
She’ll use it to free the evil spirits from a kind of spiritual limbo. They are
stuck in a place between this world and the Sacred Realm. After Ganondorf was
banished, his followers were cast out of this world, but not sealed in the
Sacred Realm. The spirits exist outside of time, in the same place Koros wanted
to send you. She’s going to use the machine to bring those spirits back. She
won’t know that you’re back in your own time. You will have the element of
surprise.”

“How do I defeat her and prevent all those horrible
things from happening?” the younger Link asked.

“You have to destroy the time device,” the older Link
replied. “If you can prevent Koros from freeing the evil spirits, then none of
what I told you will come to pass. She may be extremely smart and clever, but
she’s still just a pawn. Without the knowledge of the spirits, she won’t be able
to make the nectar, and won’t be able to amass an army. Her plan will fail
before she knows something is wrong.”

Link looked around at the sheer size of the room.
Nothing he knew of could possibly destroy a place this big. And it could’ve been
there for thousands of years. If the ravages of time couldn’t destroy it, then
what could? “That will be more difficult. This thing is probably designed to
withstand huge explosions, so anything you could make wouldn’t work. The idea I
had was to remove all those rectangle things and destroy them. Wreak havoc in
this place. Destroy anything you can. Push buttons and pull levers to screw it
up. I think this place might have some kind of self-destruct or something, but I
haven’t figured it out. I don’t know enough of the foreign language to
understand what’s in all the books here. You might be able to figure it out.
What’s important is that you stop Koros from using this machine. You have at
most a year; that’s how long it took her to figure out how to free the evil
spirits. But the sooner you destroy this place, the better.”

“I have to kill Koros, don’t I?” younger Link asked
bluntly.

The older Link nodded. “Yes. I know it sounds like
murder, but it’s not. Think of the things she’s going to do; millions of people will die. And if you succeed, she’s
still guilty of crimes from your time. She murdered many people before she ever
set her eyes on you. You’ll be doing the world a favor.”

Link sighed. “Killing giant demons and monsters is one
thing, but another person...I’ve never done that.”

“You must. This woman is not a person, she is a monster.
She does not deserve mercy or pity. She wouldn’t have mercy on anyone else. The
moment you start thinking about her as a person, she kills you. Do you
understand everything I told you? Do you know what you have to do?”

The younger Link nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything I
need to make sure everyone is safe.”

Older Link handed him the small pocket device that he’d
used to teleport to the time machine. “Use this to go back and forth between
your home and the time machine.” He patted his younger self on the shoulder. “I
have faith in you. I am you and I know you’ll do the
right thing.”

Then Link thought of something his older self didn’t
mention. “Wait, what does Koros look like?”

The older Link smiled. “I knew you’d ask that. Come
here.” He held out his hand and touched it to Link’s face. “Relax and open your
mind.” Link relaxed and suddenly an image of a Gerudo woman flashed into his
mind. If he didn’t know any better, he would swear that she was standing right
in front of him. Her wicked face seared itself into his memory as if he’d known
her all his life.

Link leaned back and took a huge, shuddering breath.
“How did you do that?”

“You’ll learn in time. But you saw her, right?”

“Yes. I can’t forget an image like that. I could
feel...I could feel everything. All the hate and anger, and the evil that came
off her.”

“Then I’m done here,” the older Link said solemnly. “You
must succeed in your mission. And make sure you take all of my notes with you.
When you wake up, it’ll seem like this is all a dream. You won’t forget, but it
might be difficult to retrieve the memories at first. Work on remembering your
mission. The notes will help you. You can’t fail.”

“I won’t fail,” Link said vehemently. His older self
hugged him and walked on to the time machine platform. “What will you do when
you get back?”

The older Link shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I
might not have a future to return to. But I can’t stay here. I might cease to
exist, I might return to a normal life, or it might be the same for me. I don’t
know if I’ll go back and still remember everything or not. I might just merge
into your future self, and I will have no memory of
this. But you will have a memory, because you’ll be the one making the change,
thereby altering the world I came from. It doesn’t really matter to me anymore,
my life is over. I hope that everything will change for the better, if not, I’m
going home to die in peace. Whatever happens, I at least know that just sending
you back will change things for the better.”

Link went to the glowing blue circle on the panel that
older Link had pointed out to him earlier. All he had to do was wave his hand
over the light, and it would take his future self back to where he came from.
“Are you ready?”

The older Link took a deep breath and nodded. “Good
luck. I have faith in you.”

Link waved his hand over the blue panel and a low hum
filled the giant room. The humming noise turned into a high-pitched whine, which
grew steadily louder until a bright blue light engulfed the platform older Link
was on. A pillar of light shot up to the ceiling and expanded from the center of
the platform all the way to the edge. The machine emitted a loud roar, then
everything stopped. The light and sound vanished in an instant, along with the
older Link, who was gone.

Link hoped that the future his counterpart returned to a
better world. Link followed his instructions exactly, and rearranged the little
rectangles so that the machine would send him home. He checked, double-checked,
and checked again to make sure that he was correct. It took a couple hours, but
all the rectangles were in their correct positions and he was ready to go. His
main fear was that his counterpart had gotten his information wrong, and that
this bizarre machine would send him to the wrong place or time. But his older
self was successful in coming to see him, so logically he would know what he was
doing better than the younger Link.

Link gathered all of the older one’s notes and papers,
and put them in a bag that he found on a desk. Link thought carefully for a
moment, and decided to take as much stuff as he could. His older self had told
him to study the books and manuals laying around to see if he could learn
anything. But what worried him was that maybe those books wouldn’t be there in
the past. They were here now, but he didn’t know if simply traveling back to his
own time could change things. He had no qualms about messing with this timeline,
because he was going to change the future anyways. Link wandered around the room
and grabbed all the books he could and dumped them on the platform. He had no
idea what the books contained, or even if they had anything to do with the
machine.

Then Link stumbled onto something strange. It was a
small book, but this one wasn’t written in the strange foreign language; it was
written in Kokiri. The cover of the book said The Hero
of Time. He had no idea what to think. Why would a book, written in the
language of the Kokiri, be sitting in a building that contained a time machine?
He wondered if maybe the older Link had left this here and he just forgot to
tell him. He curiously opened the book, but found only empty pages. He flipped
and flipped only to find blank page after blank page. Then he finally found a
single page with writing on it, and it didn’t have much. He read what was
written on the page.

You are getting close, but your
mission is far from complete. You will become the hero of another time, on a
journey that no one will remember. No matter how hard it gets, remember that I’m
here for you and I won’t leave you behind.

Link was confused by the strange words, which he was
quite sure were directed at him. After all, he was the only Hero of Time that he
knew about. His intuition told him that this book was important, far more
important than anything else here. The words didn’t tell him much, but it was
the feeling it gave him that made him deem it important. Perhaps it was his
imagination, but he felt a strange sense of reassurance and confidence when he
touched the book. Since it was fairly small, he stuck it securely in the pouch
hanging from his belt.

Link decided that he’d gathered enough books; had a pile
stacked about three feet high, and six feet wide. There must have been at least
a hundred huge, heavy books. Link went back to the panel with the little
rectangles and checked one more time to make sure it was right. Next to the blue
panel that activated the machine was an array of buttons with the ancient
writing on them. The writing was numbers, and the older Link had told him that
touching the buttons in a specific sequence would put the machine on a timer, so
he could activate it and get on the platform before it warped anything back in
time. Link said a silent prayer for guidance, something he rarely did and
punched in the sequence of numbers. The blue panel lit up, which meant that the
machine was ready.

Link waved his hand over the blue light and a loud voice
boomed from every direction at once. It was in the foreign language that he
couldn’t understand, and the regularity of the words meant that it was counting
down the seconds. Link ran to the center of the platform and stood at the
center, waiting for the machine to take him home. The voice went silent, and a
low hum filled the room just as before. It grew into a whine and Link suddenly
felt a jolt as the blue light engulfed him. He couldn’t sense his body anymore;
he could still see, hear, and feel, but every other sense that he was a physical
being faded away. It was like he was floating like a cloud.

The blue light grew blinding, but in a sudden whoosh, he
was pulled backwards at enormous speed, and the light faded into a blue point.
Suddenly he was engulfed in some kind of tunnel, the walls of which looked like
the surface of a rippling pond. The tunnel twisted and turned as he flew
backwards through it at an amazing speed. It would’ve made him feel sick to his
stomach, but he couldn’t feel his stomach. Beyond the walls of the tunnel, he
could see points of light pass by, some of which grew to enormous size as he
approached them. The lights became giant, seething balls of energy in every
color of the rainbow. Link worried that he would run into the giant balls, which
were so enormous that they filled his entire field of vision. But he went by so
fast that they were gone in seconds. The star-like lights suddenly disappeared
and the tunnel faded away around him. A bright white light flared around him and
a quiet whoosh of wind became a deafening roar. The light and noise grew until
it overwhelmed his senses. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, everything went
silent. The awareness of his body returned when he felt it slam into the ground,
knocking the wind out of him. He looked around with blurry vision and saw leaves
and trees. But the stress of his trip was too much and he passed out.

Link’s awareness slowly came back to him. He could hear
the wind blowing and birds chirping around him. Link felt a strange sensation in
his side, and he realized that something was poking him. He moaned and rolled
over, and the poking continued on his back. “What’s going on?” he slurred,
barely able to talk.

“You just fell out of the sky, Link,” replied a cheery
girl’s voice. “Are you hurt?”

That was a good question. He sat up and tried to keep
his head from spinning. He felt a little sore, but nothing else seemed to be
amiss. His eyes focused on the source of the voice and he saw that it was a
little Kokiri girl standing before him. She was holding a stick, which must have
been what she poked him with. “Um...I think I’m all right,” Link mumbled.

“That’s good,” she said happily. “You just appeared in a
flash of light and fell. I was worried when it started raining huge books, I
thought one might hit you.”

“Books?” Link asked, dumbfounded. He looked around him
and saw books of all sizes scattered everywhere. “Where did all these come
from?”

“I don’t know. You fell down and all these books came
after you. I’ve never seen that before.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Link said dryly. He looked at one of
the books, but couldn’t recognize the language it was written in. Something
bothered him about this situation, the books especially. A thought at the back
of his mind picked at him, but he couldn’t bring it to the front. “Books,
books...” he mumbled to himself.

“Are these yours?” the girl asked. “I know you like
books. Did you find some new spell to make it rain books?”

“I have no idea.”

“Well, I’ll help you pick them up. But I don’t think
you’ll have any room in your house. Solo probably wouldn’t like that. And
everybody’s been wondering where you went. You’ve been missing since
yesterday.”

You’ve been missing... That
phrase sounded significant for some reason. He seemed to remember something
about being missing. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it though. The girl
struggled trying to pick up on of the huge books, and she frowned when she
dropped it. “Link, these books are too big. Maybe Solo can help, she’s big and
strong. You could put these in your little Epona house; it’s nice weather, she
won’t need it.”

A shout came from a distance away and Link looked around
to determine its source. A tall girl with blonde hair was running toward them,
shouting his name. Link recognized the girl as his sister. She ran into him and
hugged him tightly. “Link, where have you been?” she asked, her voice laced with
both worry and annoyance.

Link’s face looked like he was concentrating on
something, but couldn’t figure it out. “I don’t know,” he replied. “How long
have I been missing? Only a day?”

“Yeah,” Solo said, giving him a weird look. She looked
him over and felt all over his head with her hand. “Did you hit your head? You
need to lie down.”

“He fell out of the sky,” the Kokiri girl said
matter-of-factly.

“Where did all these books come from?” Solo asked.

“They fell from the sky with Link.”

Solo looked at the girl, then at Link, wondering if they
were both crazy. Link shrugged his shoulders. “I know something happened, but
I’m not sure,” he said. “I just remember waking up on the ground with her poking
me.”

Solo looked at the girl. “Go get Saria and tell her that
Link just showed up.” The girl nodded and ran off. “Link, are you sure you’re
okay?”

“I feel all right, but I just don’t remember. All I
remember is buying some flowers on the way to see Zelda, and then I woke up
here. But...” he trailed off.

“But what?” Solo prodded.

“Something happened...but I’m not sure. It has something
to do with being missing, but it was longer than a day. And something bad
happened...and these books are significant somehow.”

“You need to lie down. I can shovel these books in the
stable, I guess. It’s clean. There’s no way I’m letting you pile our house to
the ceiling with this stuff.” Solo picked up one of the books and flipped
through it. “What language is this? Do you even understand this?”

Link looked at a page and shook his head. “I don’t know
what that says.”

Solo was exasperated. “Then why did you get a bunch of
books that you can’t even read?”

“I don’t know! But they’re important, I can feel it.
There’s something important about the books, and why I was gone. I’m sure it’ll
come to me.”

Saria came running towards them, and she immediately
went to work examining Link for injuries. “Are you all right?” Saria asked in a
worried tone. “Hoshi says you fell out of the sky along with a bunch of books.”
Saria didn’t usually take Hoshi very seriously, because she had the tendency to
tell wildly exaggerated stories. But Saria wondered if Hoshi was actually being
serious this time, seeing as there were dozens of books scattered everywhere.
“Link, why do you have all these books?”

“I don’t know,” he said for the umpteenth time, growing
frustrated. “But don’t get rid of them; I know they’re important for
something.”

Saria rolled her eyes, thinking that Link had some weird
scheme going again. “Fine, we’ll put them away. But I want you to lie down for a
little while. You could be hurt and not know it.” Saria gave him her cute
puppy-dog face, and he relented.

“Fine. I guess I could use some rest.” He bent over and
picked up a couple books, but Solo took them away from him.

“No, not for you,” she said sternly, swatting his
hands away. “You need rest. I’ll take care of this stuff.” She looked at all the
books and shook her head. “Though why you would get a bunch of books you can’t
even read, I’ll never know.” Solo kept muttering to herself and Saria led Link
to his house. He climbed up the ladder and plopped onto his bed with a
groan.

“I just feel weird,” he said.

“You must’ve hit your head pretty hard,” Saria said,
taking Link’s boots and clothes as he shed them. “If you can’t remember
anything, then I’m going to take that as a sign of injury. You’re going to rest
and later you can eat something. Maybe after you relax, your memories’ll come
back.” Link nodded in agreement. Her logic always made sense to him when he was
confused or unsure. “Did you cart in all of those books, or was Hoshi actually
not exaggerating this time?”

Link put his hands over his face and let out a
frustrated sigh. “Again with the books! I honestly don’t know where they came
from. I don’t remember bringing them here. And there’s no horse and carriage
here, so maybe I did fall out of the sky.” Link
racked his brain, trying desperately to pull forward the memories that he knew
were there. Then an image popped into his head. “I remember a huge room...It was
gigantic. I couldn’t see from one end to the other. And there was this...thing
in the middle...some kind of platform or something. There was a pile of books on
it, then I got on it for some reason. Then I saw a tunnel, and I was flying
through it...” He trailed off as he sorted through the images in his head.
“That’s it. I fell on my back and I woke up with Hoshi poking me.”

Saria silently wondered if Link was describing a dream,
actual events, or a combination of both. “You didn’t remember anything at all a
few minutes ago. See, you’re already making progress. Get some rest and maybe
more will come to you.”

Link sat up suddenly and looked at Saria with worry.
“What about Zelda? I was supposed to meet her. She’s probably worried sick. I
wouldn’t be surprised if she’s send out search parties; you know how she
is...”

“Calm down, Link. She’ll be fine. Solo will go get her.
You concentrate on relaxing. We’ll worry about everything else.” Link nodded and
rolled over in his bed, trying to find a comfortable position. As strange as he
felt right now, he had a feeling that it would only get more strange as time
went on.

“So a bunch of books came out of nowhere, and Link
doesn’t even know where they came from?” Zelda asked with a chuckle. She and
Solo had just arrived in the forest, and were dismounting their horses. The
horses were well-behaved, so they were allowed to roam free until they were
needed.

“That’s not the weird part,” Solo said. Zelda raised her
eyebrows in question. “They’re in a foreign language.”

“Okay...that’s kind of strange. But Link’s done a lot of
weird things before. Maybe he has some kind of scheme in mind.” Despite the
bizarre circumstances, Zelda was glad that Link was okay. When he hadn’t met her
as planned she got worried and immediately assumed the worst. But her father had
been the voice of reason, and insisted that she wait in case Link had forgotten
or overslept. She had been just about to come to the forest herself when Solo
had shown up.

“And Hoshi says that Link and the books both fell out of
the sky,” Solo continued.

“Fell out of the sky, huh?” Zelda thought for a moment.
It sounded impossible, but Link had done many impossible things. “Maybe he
finally got the hang of that teleportation thing. You have to admit, it would be
useful for hauling things.”

Solo shook her head. “No, I don’t think he’s mastered
that quite yet. The strange thing about him appearing out of nowhere is that he
doesn’t know where he was. He has amnesia or something.”

They climbed up the ladder and entered Link’s house. He
was wide awake, sitting up on his bed, enduring Saria’s babying. “Really, Saria,
I feel fine. You don’t have to spoon-feed me,” he insisted. Now that Zelda and
Solo were there, his masculine pride was injured. He would let Saria coddle him
when they were alone, but with his sister and his girlfriend present, it only
made him feel extremely embarrassed. He wouldn’t admit it to anyone though.

Zelda giggled when she saw the faint blush creep up his
cheeks. She went over to him and kissed him. “It’s okay, Linkie-pooh. We won’t
tell anyone.”

“Link secretly likes it,” Solo whispered to Zelda,
purposely loud enough for Link to hear. He folded his arms over his chest and
muttered something unintelligible.

Link scooted over and Zelda sat down next to him. “Solo
told me what happened,” she said. “How are you feeling now? Do you remember
anything more?” Link told Zelda the same story he’d told Saria before he fell
asleep.

Saria poked Zelda to get her attention, then handed her
one of the smaller books Link had found. “Is this one of the books you bought?”
asked Zelda. Link nodded. She flipped through the pages and examined them
casually. “This doesn’t look like any language I’ve ever seen. But we could
always take it to the University to see if someone there can read this.”

“No!” Link shouted, startling everyone. “Don’t show
these to anybody. I have a bad feeling about that. Nobody should see these.”

“Thank you,” Link said. “I know those are important for
some reason. I’ll figure it out though. Whatever happened to me happened for a
reason, and I’ll get to the bottom of it. But until I can remember more, I guess
there isn’t anything we can do. I’m sick of weird things happening to me. I want
to be normal.”

“Okay,” Solo said. “Let’s be normal and have something
to eat. I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Link added. “Forget the books. I want some
food.” As was their ritual, everyone went to Saria’s house for a meal. Link
hoped he would remember something, because he knew it was important. But he
figured that it couldn’t be that important; he
would’ve remembered if it was.

Chapter 3

A young man of about sixteen years
hesitantly entered the Lon Lon Ranch, after walking all the way from the castle
village. He had very fine, straight black hair that was shoulder-length and
tied into a ponytail. He wasn’t as tall as the other boys his age; he was about
five feet, eight inches. His skin was a slightly darker color than the people
in the area, resembling a suntan, but of a more olive or yellowish shade. The
most obvious features marking him as a foreigner, or at least of foreign
descent, were his eyes and ears. His eyes were a little narrower than the
average Hylian, and they looked almost slanted. His ears weren’t pointy, but
not round either; they were somewhere in between.

The boy held a piece of paper in his
hand; it was an old ad posted in the town square that asked for help at the Lon
Lon Ranch. He hoped that the position hadn’t been filled yet, because he could
use the job. He looked around and saw horses and other farm animals wandering
around, but no people. He wondered if he should walk around and find somebody,
or knock on the door of the house. Before he could make a decision, a very
pretty red-headed girl exited the barn while whistling a happy tune. She
noticed the slightly nervous young man and approached him, smiling sweetly.
“Hello,” she said politely. “Welcome to Lon Lon Ranch. How can I help you?” The
boy only stared at her, not saying anything.

The boy couldn’t help it. Every time
he saw a pretty girl, he would forget what he was going to say. He had to say
something or this girl would think he was crazy. “I...uh...” He showed the
paper to her. “I’m here about the job as a...what’s it called?” He paused when
his mind went blank. “Oh yeah! Ranch hand, that’s it.”

Malon smiled. “Oh, that’s great. We
could use the help. That ad’s been up for years, but no one has answered it.
Come with me, we’ll go talk to my dad about hiring you.” Malon led him toward
the house but stopped suddenly, and the boy almost collided with her. He had
been too busy staring at her swaying hips. “I forgot to introduce myself. I’m
Malon.” She extended her hand and the boy shook it firmly.

“My name is Railan,” the boy said.
“I’d really like to work here. It looks nice.”

Malon led him into the house, and he
followed more carefully this time. “Hey Daddy!” she bellowed, startling Railan.
There was a creaking and thumping noise coming from upstairs, and he finally
came downstairs.

“What is it dear?” he asked
frantically, worried that something was wrong.

“Sorry, I thought your were asleep.
This is Railan, he’s here to be a ranch hand.” She introduced him to her father
and they shook hands.

Talon looked the boy over, silently
judging him. “You look like a nice, strong boy. Can you ride a horse?”

“Yes, sir,” Railan replied. “I can
lift heavy things too. I’ll do whatever you need. I can work as late as you
want.”

“Yes sir. I take care of my little
sister at home, and I help my mother with housework. I wanted this job so I
could help my family. We just moved here a week ago, so we’re still settling
in. My mother will be so happy to hear this.” His smile faded a little bit.
“You are hiring me, right sir?”

“Excellent. You’re hired. I’ll give
you three hundred rupees a week, and more if I need you to do extra work. Be
here at about eight in the morning. Your job will be to help Malon with the
chores. Can you start today?” Railan nodded eagerly. “Great. Go with Malon,
she’ll show you how to do everything.”

“Thank you sir.”

Malon escorted Railan outside and
gave him a tour of the ranch. When they passed by a cluster of clucking
chickens, one of them took a liking to him and started following him. Railan
didn’t say anything at first, but grew increasingly annoyed as the chicken kept
chasing him. “Um, is it normal for them to do that?” he asked.

Malon looked behind her and noticed
the hen following him. Malon laughed. “Don’t worry about that. She’ll get bored
sooner or later.” Malon stared at the hen and it clucked at her. “Don’t you
have some eggs to lay?” The chicken didn’t understand. “Just ignore them.”
Malon stopped the tour at the stable, where some of the horses and cows were
lounging. He immediately noticed a beautiful blonde girl with amazingly long
hair brushing a horse in the back of the stable. She was affectionately
pampering the horse while she talked to it in a voice usually reserved for
talking to babies. “This is my friend Solo. She doesn’t officially work here,
but she likes to help out.”

Solo was snapped out of her trance at
the mention of her name. She hadn’t even seen Malon come in, and she didn’t
know who the boy was that followed her. “Hi Malon. Who’s this guy?” She gave
Railan a stern look.

“This is Railan. He’s the new ranch
hand. We just hired him.”

Solo’s face instantly changed from
wary to cheery. She reached out and shook his hand. “Hi! I’m Solo, Malon’s
friend. You look like a nice boy. I hope you like horses, because they’ll know
if you’re scared of them. Malon is giving you the tour, isn’t she? You’ll
probably get stuck cleaning out the stables first. That’s the worst job.” Solo
realized she was rambling and shut up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even let you talk.”

“You’re really pretty,” Railan said.
Then he realized that he’d said that out loud, and felt like an idiot. He
really had to learn how to think and not speak it out loud. The girls, however,
found it hilarious and giggled madly.

“Well, thank you,” Solo said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be
inappropriate,” Railan said. “I just thought out loud.”

“You don’t have to apologize for
complimenting me. I’ll leave you two alone, I’m sure Malon needs to explain
more stuff to you or something. I’ll just get back to Cookie here.” Solo went
back to brushing her horse.

Malon led Railan outside, and was
about to assign some chores to him when she stopped. “Oh, I forgot. You need
some work gloves. I don’t want you to get blisters. I’m sure Daddy has an extra
pair in the house somewhere. Just wait here, I’ll be right back.” Malon ran to
her house and Railan stood there, waiting for her to return. He leaned against
the barn and waited patiently.

He looked over and saw a young man in
bizarre green clothes ride into the ranch on a brown horse. He dismounted the
horse and it trotted off to the corral to eat some grass. The man in green
looked around for someone or something, and his eyes landed on Railan. He
approached with a questioning look. “Hello, sir,” said Railan formally. This
guy might be a customer, so Railan had to be polite. “Can I help you? Are you a
customer? I can go get Miss Malon
for you.”

Link gave him a confused look and
scratched his head. “Um...I don’t mean to be rude but, who are you?”

“I’m Railan, the ranch hand. I’m
sorry, they just hired me today, so I don’t know everything here yet. I’m sure
I can get someone to help you.”

“Oh no, that’s okay,” Link said
casually. “I’m not a customer. I’m a friend of Malon’s. I’m Link, it’s nice to
meet you.” Link shook Railan’s hand. “I’m glad to see that somebody finally
came for the job. Malon gets ashamed if me or Solo try to help her too much.
She doesn’t want her friends doing the work because we won’t accept payment. So
where is Malon anyways?”

Railan pointed to the house. “She
went inside to get some work gloves for me.”

Railan shrugged his shoulders. “I
guess that’s what I signed up for. I’ve cleaned up after horses before, so it
shouldn’t be too bad. Besides, a lady shouldn’t have to do a job like that.”

“You seem like a nice guy. I think
you’ll do just fine here. You’re already better than the last man who worked
here. He was always in a bad mood.”

Railan didn’t know who the last ranch
hand was that worked there, but he must’ve been terrible judging by the way
that everyone avoided talking about him. “Well, I’m good-natured, so there
shouldn’t be a problem.” Railan worried that everyone would compare him to the
last ranch hand, and he didn’t know if that was good or bad. “Was the last guy
a bad worker? I’m different. I’ll work hard.”

“He wasn’t the worst worker in the
world, but he had a bad attitude. They wouldn’t fire him because he usually did
the work. They finally got rid of him when he hit Malon.”

Railan’s eyes went wide. “What?
That’s terrible! I don’t even know her, but I can tell she’s a nice girl. How
could someone hit a girl like that?”

Link shrugged his shoulders sadly.
“Some people are bad. When Solo saw that, she beat the crap out of him. So he
got what he deserved.” Railan felt relieved when he heard that. “Anyways,
speaking of Solo, have you seen her? She’s a girl about my height, with really,
really long blonde hair.”

“Oh yeah, that really pretty girl.
She’s in the barn brushing her horse.” Link gave him a wary look. “I’m sorry.
Is she your girlfriend? I didn’t mean to sound like I’m interested in her or
anything...not that she’s not worth being interested in. I just don’t want you
to think that...” He was interrupted when Link started laughing. Railan had no
idea what was so funny, but Link obviously thought something was hilarious.
“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing really. She’s my sister, not
my girlfriend. But I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you; she’s already
taken.”

Railan looked a little disappointed,
but tried to hide it. “Oh...well, that’s fine. I wasn’t thinking about trying
to date her or anything, that would be weird anyways because she’s my boss’s
friend.”

“You’re not very good with women, are
you?” Link asked bluntly.

Railan would’ve felt insulted if it
weren’t true. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“I understand. I’m no expert, either.
I’m lucky to have a girlfriend, but we’ve known each other for years. Our
relationship kind of grew out of our friendship. I wouldn’t have the slightest
idea what to do if I tried to get a girlfriend right now. I don’t understand
women, and I don’t think they even understand themselves. All I know is that
they like perfume and pretty things. And everything is ‘cute’. The rest I just
figure out as I go along. It was nice meeting you, but I need to go fetch my
sister.” They shook hands again and Link went to the barn to find Solo.

Link smiled when he saw Solo feeding
her horse apples and carrots while holding a one-sided conversation with it.
She probably got that habit from Malon. “I’m sorry Cookie, I ran out of honey. I
promise I’ll give you some tomorrow,” Solo said to the horse. She patted the
horse’s muzzle affectionately and it grunted at her.

“Are you finished?” Link asked. Solo
glared at him as if he’d interrupted an important moment.

“What do you want? Cookie needs
attention.” She rubbed the horse’s neck.

“I know your horse needs attention.”
He rolled his eyes. “I just wanted to know if you were coming home tonight.
Otherwise Saria is going to rearrange all your things.”

Solo looked at him like he was an
idiot. “You came all the way over here to tell me that?”

“No, not really. I also wanted to say
that Zelda wants us to come over to her place tomorrow for lunch. She says they
got a shipment of some rare fancy food she wants to share with us.”

Solo gave a wary look and stuck out
her tongue. “Uh oh, I hope it’s not those squid things again. Those were
horrible. I’d rather eat bugs, at least those had a nice crunch.”

“Ugh, that’s nasty. But I agree,
those squids weren’t very good. Zelda’s gonna meet us here, then we can go to
the castle. She wants to stop by to get a new saddle Malon’s having made for
her.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that,” Solo
said. “She said the other one makes her butt hurt. I can understand that. I
remember one time I rode on this nasty old saddle that was rough and hard, and
my thighs got so irritated and I had this horrible rash...”

Link held up his hands to stop her.
“Please don’t talk about a rash on your thighs. I don’t want to hear about
that.” Solo giggled and he rolled his eyes at her. “So I guess you can stay
here and I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to make sure that Saria doesn’t mess
with my stuff. But I’ll let her know she can lose all of your things.” She
stuck out her tongue at him. Link shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and left.

He almost fell over laughing when he
saw the predicament that Railan was in. Malon had made him feed the chickens
and now he was standing in the middle of a huge flock of clucking chickens in a
feeding frenzy; and he looked scared to death. He caught sight of Link and
waved frantically at him. “Hey! Dear goddesses, help me!”

Link felt sorry for him, but he
couldn’t help laughing. He walked over to the flock of chickens and simply
walked though them, nudging them away if he needed to. Link took the bucket
from the frightened Railan and grabbed a large handful of kernels. He hurled
the kernels away from him and the chickens immediately flocked to the new
source of food. Link escorted him away and put the bucket back to where it
belonged.

“Oh, thank you so much!” Railan said.
“I thought they were going to kill me.” Link tried to stifle his laughter, but
wasn’t doing very well. Railan gave an annoyed look. “You wouldn’t like it if
you were attacked by chickens.”

Link finally quit laughing and caught
his breath. “I’ve been attacked by them before. But those ones weren’t
attacking you. They were just hungry.”

“Yeah, hungry for my flesh,” he said
sarcastically.

“They couldn’t care less for you,
they wanted the corn. Next time just walk through them, they’ll get out of the
way.”

“Miss Malon didn’t tell me that. She just gave
me a bucket and told me to feed the chickens.”

Link chuckled again, and tried to
look serious when Malon walked over. She looked at both of them and wondered
what was going on; Link was trying not to laugh and Railan wad red-faced and
irritated. “What happened?” she asked. Link snorted and laughed again. Railan
glared at him. “Did you feed the chickens?”

“Nonsense. You can borrow one of our
horses. We rent them out all the time.”

“Well, thanks. I appreciate it.
But...what do I do with the horse afterwards?”

Link replied, “There’s a public
stable in the village, near the drawbridge. Malon owns a couple stalls there,
and you can use one of those.”

“Yeah, hang on a minute,” Malon said,
holding up her index finger. “I’ll go get you a pass so they let you use my
stable.”

Malon ran off to the house to get the
pass, and Link continued his explanation. “Most visitors will rent a stall for
the night, but since Lon Lon Ranch owns a couple, you can use those.”

“Do I have to pay to rent the horse?”

Link shook his head. “Oh, no. Malon’s
really nice, she wouldn’t charge you for that. Just know that she’ll do
everything she can to baby you and take care of you. She does that to
everyone.”

“Well, that’s nice of her. I just
moved here, and people are friendly, but some of them seem distant. They assume
that I don’t speak Hylian, and treat me like a child. It’s probably because I
look foreign. My parents were from Kolona, but my sister and I were born in
Hyrule.”

Link nodded, that would explain why
he didn’t look like everyone else. “Kolona, that’s way up north, isn’t it?”

“They wanted a better life for their
children. Kolona isn’t exactly a poor country, but it’s not very rich either.
They heard that they could make a better life in Hyrule because it was richer.
My mama is a seamstress, and Hyrulians really liked the clothes and rugs she
made because they looked ‘exotic’. We lived in the Northern Province
until we moved here. Mama realized
that she could make a much better living in Hyrule City
than out in the middle of nowhere.
There’s a much higher demand for exotic goods here, and people are willing to
pay more. She’s already got enough orders for fancy clothes to keep her busy
for a month.”

“That’s really nice,” Link said.
“What does your father do?”

Railan’s face fell and Link wondered
if he’d said something wrong. “He died not long after my sister was born. He
worked as a soldier in the army’s northern regiment. One night he found some
criminals trying to rape a woman, and as he fought them off, one of them
managed to stab him. It wasn’t a very bad wound, but it got infected and he
died. My family was devastated, but we were proud that he died saving an
innocent woman’s honor. It’s been tough, because I’ve had to be the man of the
family since I was eleven. That’s why I wanted this job so bad, so I could help
support my mother and sister.”

Railan didn’t seem to mind. “It’s all
right, you didn’t know. I just wished we’d moved here sooner. I already love it
here. But I need to get familiar with the city.”

“I’ll follow you home and show you
around,” Link offered. “I’ll show you where the stables are so you know where
to put the horse.”

“Thanks a lot, I’d really appreciate
that.”

Malon returned with the paper and
gave it to Railan. “Sorry it took so long, I couldn’t remember where I put it.
Just show it to the guard there and he’ll let you in. Come on, I’ll get you set
up with the horse.” Railan and Link followed Malon to the stable. She went to a
dark-brown stallion, that was lazily swatting flies with its tail. “This is
Buddy. He’s a nice horse. He’s used to strangers, so you should have no problem
with him.” Malon quickly and efficiently prepared the horse for riding.

Railan was impressed with Malon’s
speed. From what he’d seen in the few hours he’d known her, she seemed to be good
at everything. Malon finished and proudly led the horse out of the stable.
“Wow, you’re good,” said Railan in amazement. “It would’ve taken me forever to
do that, even if the horse was cooperating.” Railan put a foot in the stirrup
and shakily mounted the horse. He settled himself into the saddle and tried to
get a feel for the horse. “It’s been a while since I’ve ridden a horse, so I’m
a little rusty.”

“It’s okay,” Malon said. “Buddy is
used to all kinds of riders. He can almost read your mind. You’ll get used to
him real quick.”

Railan decided to trust her judgment.
He slowly led the horse out of the stable and was surprised when the horse took
to him immediately. “Hey, this horse is great!” Railan called to Link, who was
slowly catching up to him. “Where’d your horse go?” Railan asked when Link
reached him.

“She’s over there,” Link said,
pointing to the far side of the ranch where Epona was eating the blossoms off a
rose bush. Link whistled and called out, “Hey Epona! Let’s go!” Epona stuck her
head up and looked toward the source of the call. She recognized it as Link and
galloped over to him. When she stopped in front of him, Link lovingly patted
her and fed her a carrot.

“Yes,” Link said proudly. “She’s
really smart. I’m amazed myself sometimes.” Link hopped onto Epona and motioned
for Railan to follow. “Let’s go, I’ll show you around town when we get there.”

Link and Railan had secured their
horses in the stables, and set out to the town. “I really appreciate this,”
Railan said. “I’ve been having trouble figuring things out. I didn’t realize
this town was so big.”

“I know, it looks a lot smaller than
it really is.” Link showed Railan around town, pointing out all of the good
restaurants, which street vendors were fair and which were cheats, and all of
the other points of interest. “There’s the shooting gallery. It’s a fun game.
They won’t let me play for prizes there because I get a perfect score every
time.”

“No, they’re not rigged. But you have
to be a really good shot to win though. I have a lot of experience with
slingshots, bows, and lots of other things.”

“What, are you training to be a
knight?” Railan asked jokingly.

“No, I’m already a knight.” He
reached into his pocket and pulled out a small badge that was engraved with the
seal of the Royal Order of Hylian Knights.

“Is that real?”

“Of course it is,” Link replied, as
if the answer was obvious. He handed it to Railan and he examined it with great
interest.

“Wow, that’s really neat. I didn’t
know someone my age could become a knight. I thought it took years of training
to become a knight.”

“Usually it does. I mean, I’ve had
sort of...informal training. I learned everything on my own mostly. But I was
actually knighted as a reward for saving Zelda’s life. The king also gave me
the Star of Nayru.” Link didn’t like to brag, so he made it sound like it was
no big deal. He didn’t want to lose a potential new friend to jealousy.

“But why would the king give you a
medal for saving your girlfriend...?” he trailed off. He tried to figure out
why he would get a medal for something like that. It didn’t occur to him that
it could be the princess. “Zelda, that’s the same name as the princess, right?”
His eyes widened when he made the connection. “Wait a second, you’re not
talking about Princess Zelda
are you?” He shook his head. “That’s impossible.”

Link shuffled his feet, worried about
what Railan would think of him if he told the truth, but he couldn’t lie.
“Actually, she is the princess. I guess you would learn that sooner or later.”

Railan shook his head. “No way. You
don’t seem like a rich aristocrat. How could a regular guy like you be in love
with the princess?” Then Railan frowned. “Wait, you’re not one of those guys
that claims to be in love with the princess, but is really only just a crazy stalker,
are you?”

Link laughed. “No, no. It’s not like
that. I really am her boyfriend. You’ll meet her sooner or later. I understand
your skepticism, I wouldn’t believe me if our situation was reversed.”

Railan wasn’t sure if should believe
Link or not. He decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. If Link was
right, he would meet the girl sooner or later and find out for herself. “Well,
I guess I believe you...”

“Just wait till you meet her.” Link
tried to think of something else to say. “Um...that’s it for the town here. I
guess I’ll see you tomorrow when I go over to the ranch.” Link started to walk
away, but Railan stopped him.

“Wait.” Link stopped and turned
around. “Why don’t you come to my house? I’ll introduce you to my family.”
Railan hoped that he and Link could become friends, because he could use
someone who knew his way around Hyrule. Link felt the same way; he hoped he
could make a friend that was a guy, someone who understood him.

“All right. I have nothing else to
do.”

Railan smiled and escorted him
through the town, and down one of the side streets. He stopped in front of one
of the many small townhouses, which looked just like all the others. “This is
my house, come in.” He opened the door for Link and nudged him inside. The
interior was fairly normal, there was a small living room with a fireplace and
chairs, and a kitchen in the back. Bedrooms were on the second floor, and he
heard some thumping noises from above. “Mama! Jamila! I’m home!” Railan
bellowed. Link cringed, but Railan acted like it was normal.

The thumping from upstairs grew
louder and a small girl rushed over to Railan and jumped into his arms. She
looked a lot like him, and had the same pitch-black eyes and hair, except that
her hair was much longer. “Hi Railan! Welcome home,” she said. She kissed him
on the cheek and he set her back on the floor. She looked up at Link with
curious eyes. “Who are you?”

“Hi, I’m Link,” he said, leaning over
and patting her on the head.

“He’s my new friend,” Railan
explained.

“Link is a funny name,” Jamila said.
Link laughed at her typically childish words. She grabbed part of his tunic and
felt it. “Your clothes look weird, but they feel nice. Do you like green? I
don’t like green. Blue is my favorite color. Is green your favorite color?”

Link was going to respond, but Railan
cut in, “Jamila, please don’t pester him. Go and play with your toys.”

Jamila looked at Link. “You wanna see
my new dolly?”

“Um...I...” Link mumbled.

Railan nudged his sister away. “Go
on. Shoo.” The girl ran off to the kitchen. “Come meet my mother.” Link
followed Railan into the kitchen, where the little girl was pestering a
kind-looking middle aged woman. She was short, and a little pudgy, but not fat.
Her hair was cropped short, just about shoulder-length, and was streaked with
gray. She was attempting to stir a pot on the stove while simultaneously
keeping the little girl at bay.

“Did you get the job, darling?” asked
the woman.

“Yes, mama,” Railan replied “The
ranch is a really nice place, and the people that own it are great. They even
lent me a horse to go back and forth to work.”

The woman looked at Link, as if she
were assessing him. He suddenly felt nervous. “Who’s this?”

“This is Link. I met him at the
ranch. He doesn’t work there, but he’s a friend of the owners. He was showing
me around the town.”

“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am,” Link
said politely.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” she
said, gently shaking Link’s hand. “My name is Adara. I’m glad that Railan is
making friends already.”

“Mama,” Railan whined. “Please, not
in front of him.”

Link felt a little awkward, so he
didn’t say anything. “So, where are you from?” Adara asked.

“I live in the
Kokiri Forest,” he replied. The gave him blank looks. He forgot that they weren’t
from
around here, and would probably have never heard of the place. “It’s a forest
southeast of here. It’s close, but it’s very secluded. Not many people have
ever been there.”

“Living in a forest would be nice,”
Railan commented. “Anyways, Mama, Link here knows just about everyone in town.
He’s even a knight. He saved the princess’s life, and he says she’s his
girlfriend too.”

Adara looked at Link with a skeptical
eye. “Is that true?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Link replied. “I
wouldn’t lie. I just hesitate to tell people because I don’t want them to
assume I’m a snotty aristocrat or something. People tend to judge others before
they know them.”

Adara had only known Link for a
couple minutes, but she’d already decided she liked him. He seemed like a good
and honorable young man, and she was usually a very good judge of character.
“You look like a nice boy,” she said. Link was nervous meeting a new friend’s
parents, and tried to not let it show. Adara also noticed that he and Railan
were both glancing at the pot on the stove when they thought she wasn’t paying
attention. “Boys will be boys.” They both gave her confused looks. “You’re both
looking at the food. Don’t think I don’t know that look.”

“Actually, it does smell pretty
good,” Link said.

“You can have dinner with us,” Adara
offered.

“Oh, no. I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Please, I insist.”

“Okay. I really appreciate it.”

Railan led Link to the table and
offered him a chair. “You’ll really like this dish, it’s my favorite,” Railan
said

“Thanks for your hospitality,” Link
said to Adara as she got ready to serve the food.

“You’re very welcome, young man.”
Adara looked around for her daughter, but didn’t see her anywhere. “Jamila!
Dinner!” The girl came running and plopped down on her chair.

“Hi Mister Link!” she chirped. “Are
you having dinner with us? It’s nice to see that Railan has a new friend. Now
he needs a girlfriend. Maybe you could introduce him to a girl.”

Railan looked absolutely humiliated
at his sister’s complete lack of tact. Link couldn’t help but chuckle. “How old
are you, sweetheart?”

“I’m five,” she said proudly. “That’s
this many.” She held up five fingers. Railan pounded his head on the table.
Link thought it was cute. Link had never been around a child this young, and he
thought she was absolutely adorable. His attention was diverted when Adara
brought the food to the table. She doled out servings to everyone, and then sat
down at her place at the table.

Link looked at the dish curiously.
The main part of the meal was composed of a yellowish rice. There were many
different vegetables that he didn’t recognize chopped into the mix, along with
little pieces of meat. It smelled sweet and savory at the same time. He had no
idea what spices she used, but he’d never had them before. He waited for Adara
to start eating, because he figured that as the head of the household, she
should start first. An awkward moment later, he realized that they were waiting
for him to take the first bite. Link took a small forkful, tasting it
experimentally. He couldn’t recognize many of the flavors, but he really liked
it. It was a little bit spicy, but not that much. He quickly forgot where he
was and started devouring the food. The rest started eating along with him.
“Good,” Link said, his mouth nearly full. He suddenly slowed down his pace when
he realized that he was eating like a pig. He didn’t want his new friend’s
mother to think he was ill-mannered. “This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”

“I told you it was good,” Railan said
in between bites.

Adara gave Railan a stern look.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“But he did it,” Railan complained.

“He’s not my son.” Link didn’t pay
much attention to their bantering, he was too busy enjoying the food. “So,
Link. Tell me a little about yourself.”

Link’s head shot up at the mention of
his name. “Huh? Oh...” He had to decide what he could and couldn’t tell them.
He would definitely leave out all his adventures through time. “Well, Railan
said before that I was a knight. When I was twelve, the princess was kidnapped
by an assassin. A corrupt duke had hired him to kidnap and kill her. The guy
even tried to kill me. I managed to find out where he went and I went to rescue
her. He had hurt her badly, and I still wish that I had gotten there sooner.
But everything turned out okay.”

Adara and Railan both looked shocked,
and Link worried that he had said something inappropriate. He didn’t mean to
shock them, he was just telling the truth. “Oh, that’s so terrible,” Adara
said. “I remember hearing years ago about someone kidnapping the princess, but
this.
My, my.” If someone else had told her that story, she wouldn’t have believed
him. But there was a genuine honesty in this young man; she could feel it. “And
you were only twelve when you did this?” Link nodded in response. “You
must be very proud.”

“Well, I try not to talk about it.
Some people don’t believe me, and others get insanely jealous. I don’t want to
brag about it. I did what I had to do.”

“That’s amazing,” Railan said. “I
thought maybe you’d saved the princess from a rolling boulder or something. I
didn’t know an assassin tried to kill her. How did you meet the
princess?”

Link had to think fast. Should he
decline to answer, or should he leave out parts of the story. “Well, that’s
kind of a long story... And there’s some things I probably shouldn’t tell you.
But basically I got word that she had a special mission for me. I was only ten,
and I had no idea what she wanted with me. Nobody believed her because she was
a child, but she has a wisdom far beyond her years. I actually snuck into the
castle to see her. I eventually completed her mission, and we became friends
after that. She was so lonely, because she didn’t have anyone else her age to
interact with. Eventually we fell in love. I feel like we were destined to be
together.”

“You’re so lucky,” Railan said. “It
must be amazing to know the princess.” Link silently hoped that his friend
wouldn’t get jealous. But it seemed that he was genuinely interested in what he
was saying. “What’s she like?”

Link smiled. “She really is a nice
person. You would think the princess and future queen would be stuck-up and
snobbish. But she’s not. She doesn’t look down on people and goes out of her
way to make others happy. She believes that her role is to serve her people,
not the other way around.”

“She sounds great,” Adara said. “What
about your family? What do they do?”

“Well, I have a twin sister named
Solo. I consider my friends family, so there’s also Malon at the ranch, and my
childhood friend Saria.”

“What do your parents do?” Railan
asked.

A sad look flashed across his face,
but he quickly controlled it. “I don’t have any parents. My sister and I are
orphans. Our parents died shortly after we were born. I was raised in the
Kokiri Forest. It’s quite different from out here. It’s really its own little
world.
They don’t see many outsiders, and none of them ever leave the forest. I
actually thought I was one of them until I found out I was a Hylian. My sister
spent the first few years of her life at an orphanage. See, our parents separated
us when we were babies. There was a huge war then, and they wanted at least one
of us to survive. But the orphanage burned down when Solo was four years old.
She was the only survivor, and spent the nest ten years living homeless on the
street. I didn’t even know she existed. But then we finally met. I was so sad
that she had to live such a horrible life. She didn’t even know her own name,
and named herself Solo. I later found out that her birth name is Zelda, but she
sticks with Solo. She had a hard time growing up. I’d give anything to be able
to go back in time and switch places with her. She’s all the blood family I
have.”

“Oh, you poor thing,” Adara cooed.
Link didn’t want pity from anyone, but he could sense that she was only
expressing her opinion, and that she wasn’t patronizing him.

“I’ll never complain about anything
ever again,” Railan said.

“I know it sounds heartbreaking, but
it’s all I ever knew. Every person has a different set of problems in life, and
I was no different. If anything, it made me a better person.”

“I’d like to meet your friends and
family some time,” Adara said.

“I’d like that,” Link said with a
smile. He had a feeling that he and Railan would become good friends.

Saria was tapping her fingers on her
table, growing more annoyed by the minute. Link was supposed to be there for dinner
twenty minutes ago. Although he was often late for any number of things, being
late for a meal was rare. She’d made one of his favorite dishes: a flatbread
topped with three kinds of sauce, herbs, spices, and several kinds of
vegetables and mushrooms. “He’d better be here…” she muttered to herself.

Her head shot up when she heard the
telltale sound of hooves clomping outside. Solo was staying at Malon’s house,
so it could only be Link. She had learned to differentiate between the sounds
of their different horses; each one had a unique pattern of sound. The sounds
she heard were definitely from Epona. She put on her best scolding face as she
heard Link approach. He was definitely going to get a talking to. But her anger
vanished when she saw Link saunter in with a genuinely happy look on his face.
“Hi Saria,” he said happily, kissing her on the cheek before sitting down at
the table. “I’m sorry I was late, but I was at a friend’s house.”

The mention of a friend caught her
attention. He wouldn’t use the generic term “friend” if it had been someone she
knew. Therefore, he had to have made a new friend. Saria suddenly felt happy
for him, which wasn’t hard to do considering that he was virtually oozing
happiness right now. “You made a new friend?” she asked, feigning disinterest.

“Yeah, his name is Railan,” he
replied as he cut up the food and gave Saria and himself servings. “He just got
hired at the ranch. He just moved to the castle town a few days ago.” Link took
a bite of the food and made a happy moan. “Wow, this is even better than last
time. Did you do something new to it?”

Saria started, snapped out of her
silent musings. “Oh…yes. I put a new herb in it. I hope you like it.” Link
nodded enthusiastically. She smiled. “I thought you’d like it. So tell me about
him.” Saria really was happy that he’d found a boy his age to be his friend.
Most of his friends were girls of the same age, and that led to a lot of
awkward situations. If Link needed anything, it was a male friend of his age.
Saria chuckled when she thought about how a fellow man would find his fart
jokes entertaining.

“What’s so funny?” Link asked with
his mouth almost completely full.

“I was just thinking that your new
friend would laugh at your fart jokes. Only boys would find that funny.”

Link stuck out his tongue at her. “At
least I can understand him. Girls are way too complicated. I have a feeling
that we’ll be good friends. He seems really nice. And his family is great too.
He has a little sister, and she is absolutely the cutest person I’ve ever seen.
He’s so lucky. I’ll bring him here sometime so he can meet you.”

Saria smiled. “I’d like that. I’d
love to meet your new friend.”

“Zelda wants me, Solo, and Malon to
have lunch with her tomorrow, and maybe I can bring Railan with. I don’t think
he really believed me when I said that I knew Zelda. He might’ve thought I was
exaggerating.”

“I can understand why it would be
hard to believe,” said Saria. Most people wouldn’t expect a peasant like Link
to know the princess personally. “I’d love to see the look on his face when he
finds out for real.”

“I’ll tell you all about it
tomorrow.”

Railan was working hard at the ranch,
doing his best to impress his bosses. He wanted Talon and Malon to get what
they were paying for. He had just finished cleaning all the stables, dumping
the waste in a giant compost pile. He wandered around until he found Malon.
“I’m all done, Miss Malon.
What’s next?”

Malon gave a curious look. “Really?
You cleaned out the stables?” He nodded. “Fed the chickens, fed the horses, and
collected the eggs?”

He nodded after each question. “Yes,
Miss.”

“Wow, you’re fast.” This boy was a
far cry better than Ingo ever was.

“What do you have for me to do now?”

Malon shrugged her shoulders.
“Actually, everything’s done. With Solo helping me, and you working so fast, we
got done early.”

It was only about noon, and Railan was surprised that they finished so quickly. “Do
you want me to go home right now?”

“Well, actually...Zelda wanted to
take me, Solo, and Link to her place for lunch. I don’t see any reason why you
can’t come with. I’d like to be friends with you. I’m sure Link would too.”

Solo finally finished babying her
horse and came outside to the entrance to the corral, where Malon and Railan
were talking. “Well, after Link showed me around town yesterday, I invited him
to my house. I’m glad to have a new friend, especially one that can help me
adjust to living here.”

“Oh, Link went over to your house?”
Solo asked, trying to squeeze into the conversation. “He must be so happy to
have a friend that’s a boy.”

“What do you mean?” Railan asked, a
confused look on his face.

“All of Link’s friends are girls,”
Solo explained. “He doesn’t have any friends his age that are boys. You’d be
the first one.”

Railan imagined having nothing but
females for company. He couldn’t see a problem with that. “Wow. He’s lucky.”

Solo and Malon giggled. “You know, he
doesn’t think of us as potential dating material,” Malon said. Solo stuck out
her tongue and shook her head. “I don’t even think something like that would
even cross his mind. He’s so infatuated with Zelda that he doesn’t see other
women as possible mates.”

“All he needs is someone who
understand how his mind works,” Solo said. “Sometimes I feel bad for him
because he doesn’t understand how women think.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Railan
commented. They glared at him as a joke, but he took it seriously. “No, I’m
sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I jus mean that women are complicated and I
don’t understand them and I don’t think any man does.”

“I know,” Malon said. “Calm down,
we’re just joking.”

“He’s coming,” Solo said. They heard
the sound of hooves grow closer; two horses were coming. Link riding Epona and
Zelda riding her brilliantly white stallion came into view and stopped by the
group. Link dismounted Epona and took Zelda’s hand to politely help her off her
horse.

Link looked like a child giddy with
excitement as he introduced his new friend to Zelda. “Zelda this is Railan,
he’s the new friend I told you about. Railan, this is Zelda.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Zelda
said sweetly. “Any friend of Link’s is a friend of mine.”

Railan was amazed by Zelda’s
appearance. She had a very delicate beauty about her, with light golden hair,
shining blue eyes, and a kind, hypnotizing smile. He almost couldn’t believe
that Link knew so many gorgeous women. “It’s nice to meet you...um, Your
Royal...Highness Majesty.” He looked genuinely confused. “Is that right?”

Zelda smiled reassuringly and patted
the back of his hand. “That’s fine. You don’t need to call me by any titles or
honorifics. Just call me by my name. Only snotty aristocrats call me ‘your
highness’. You’re a friend, so use my name.”

“Okay. Can I ask you a question?”
Zelda nodded. “Are you really the princess? The princess of Hyrule? It’s
not that I don’t believe you or Link, but I thought that maybe he meant that he
thinks of you like a princess and treats you like one.”

“Oh yes, it’s true,” Zelda replied.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but you’ll see when we go to the castle. That is,
if you want to come to lunch with us?”

Railan smiled, trying to hold back
the excitement. “Yes, absolutely.”

“Great,” Zelda said happily, clapping
her hands together. Malon and Solo went to the stable to get their horses
ready. Zelda noticed the curious look on Railan’s face. “You can ask me any
question you want.”

“I expected you to have a crown, or
at least a bunch of fancy jewelry. You have a nice dress, but it doesn’t look
like it cost a thousand rupees or something.” Her dress was very simple, a
light lavender color with tiny flowers patterned on it

“Oh, I don’t wear any of that fancy
stuff normally, only for special occasions. And I can’t remember the last time
I actually wore my crown...that was years ago.” She spoke casually, as if
everyone had the same problem.

“You’re living every man’s dream,”
Railan said to Link. Then he turned to Zelda. “How often does some prince or
other royalty try to convince you to marry him?”

Zelda laughed. “It happens all the
time,” she said. “I just tell them to get lost. Some are persistent, but they
all give up eventually.”

Solo and Malon came out of the stable
and mounted their horses. Railan went to get his borrow horse, and followed the
rest of the group to the castle.

As the group approached the gates,
the guards opened it. They bowed to Zelda and saluted Link as they passed by.
Railan looked around in wonder. “Wow, it looks so much nicer from inside the
gates,” he said. “And I didn’t realize that the castle was so huge.”

“Wait till you see the inside,” Zelda
said. They stopped by the stables and turned their horses over to the stable
hands there. Railan followed the group into the castle, and he lagged behind a
couple times when he stopped to look at something.

“I can’t believe that I meet you, and
the next day I’m in the castle with the princess,” Railan said to Link.

Zelda led them to the dining room,
and they all took a seat. “So what’s this special lunch you have for us?” Solo
asked excitedly.

“I hope it’s something edible,” Link
commented, recalling many meals that he would’ve never thought could actually
be food.

“Well, the actual meal is normal
roast beef,” Zelda said. “It’s the dessert that’s special. I’m sure you’ll all
like it. They should be serving us any minute now.” Then, as if on cue, three
servants entered the room, and set plates in front of everyone. Solo and Link
dug in, while the others ate at a slightly slower pace.

“This palace is unbelievable,” Railan
said, trying to start a conversation. “I’ve never seen such beautiful paintings
and tapestries. I still keep thinking this is a dream I’m going to wake up
from.”

“I felt the same way the first time I
came here,” Solo said. “You’ll get used to it.”

“So tell me a little about yourself,”
Zelda asked Railan.

He introduced himself and told her
about himself and his family, saying the same things he’d told Link the day
before. Zelda listened intently and asked questions when she wanted to know
more. Railan told her a condensed version of his life, trying not to leave out
important details.

“Now what would you like to know
about me?” Zelda asked after Railan finished.

“Uh...anything you want to tell me is
fine,” he replied, unsure of what questions he should ask. “I’m sure you get
this question all the time, but what’s it like being a princess?”

She chuckled; it was true, people did
ask her that frequently. “Some of it is really nice. I can’t complain about the
fancy food and clothes, and all the things I have. Anybody would love to have
all this stuff. But I don’t really care about possessions. Sometimes I even
have to tell the servants that I don’t need their help. I remember as a little
girl that the servants always wanted to dress me. I didn’t want to stand there
and have people put clothes on me, I could handle that myself.

“But it’s not all about being
pampered. There’s a lot of work involved. I’ve been studying and training to be
a queen all my life. I take classes on every subject you can think of. I speak
four foreign languages, plus Ancient Hylian, Old Hylian, and Middle Hylian.
Being with my friends is the only relief I have from constant studying and
training.”

“Wow,” Railan said. “You must be the
smartest girl in Hyrule.”

Zelda blushed and thanked him for the
compliment. Just then, two servants reentered the dining room, one carrying
bowls and the other carrying a bucket. “Ah! Here’s the surprise,” Zelda said.
The servants went to each person and set down a bowl, then filled it with a
solid, but soft pink substance. None of them knew what it was.

“Is this pudding?” Solo asked. She
poked at it with her finger and quickly pulled it back in surprise. “It’s cold!
What is this?”

“It’s ice cream,” Zelda said. “It’s
made from milk and cream, along with flavorings. This has strawberries in it.”
Zelda started eating and the others followed suit. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed
the frozen treat.

“How did you freeze this stuff at
this time of year?” Malon asked.

“People cut huge blocks of ice from
the mountains and cart them down here,” Zelda replied. “It’s rather
time-consuming and expensive, so we don’t have it often.” All of their bowls
were empty and Zelda passed the bucket around the table. “Go on, eat more. It
won’t be any good once it’s melted.” Everyone helped himself to seconds, and in
the case of Link, thirds and fourths.

Railan really enjoyed the meal and
the new friends he made. After meeting the future queen, he had no idea what to
expect next. He wondered what other surprises Link had for him.

After the meal and talking for a
couple hours, Zelda remained at the castle, and everyone else left. Malon had
to return home to cook for her father, and Link and Solo went back to their
home. Link invited Railan to come to the Kokiri Forest
and stay the night if he wanted to.
Railan was taken aback by the sheer beauty of the
Kokiri Forest. He was speechless. “This is my home, the village where I grew up,”
Link
said after they dismounted their horses and let them roam free.

“Beautiful,” Railan said, distracted
by the wonderful sights around him. “You live in a wonderful place. Look at all
these cozy little houses. How many people live here?”

“Less than a hundred,” Link answered.
He showed him around the town, and pointed out everything of interest. Railan
noticed that all the inhabitants were children, and he wondered where the
adults were.

“Where are the adults?” he asked.

“Well, there aren’t any. The Kokiri
are a rather different race. They don’t actually grow up like we do. They look
young, but all of them are actually older than me.”

“Same here,” Railan said. He was a
little confused at the small, glowing creature that flitted about the room,
staying mostly behind Saria. “What is that?”

“That’s a fairy,” Saria replied. “Her
name is Niva. All of the Kokiri have a fairy; they’re friends and guardians.
They help us when we need it.” Saria poked her fairy and it fluttered off her
shoulder and hovered close to her. “Go on, say hello to Railan. He won’t hurt
you.”

Saria’s fairy flew over to Railan and
settled in the palm of his hand. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Up
close he could see that fairy was a tiny person with wings, but she also had a
strange ethereal glow. Railan was afraid to touch her, lest he injure her.
“You’re really cute,” Railan said. “I didn’t know that fairies existed. I
thought they were a myth.”

“Yep, we’re real,” the fairy replied
in a cheery, high-pitched voice. “You look different than everyone else. You’re
cute.” The fairy flew away and returned to the safety of Saria’s head.

“First I meet the princess, then this
magical race that never grows up; and they all have fairies! Is there anything
else you want to shock me with?”

“I can’t think of anything at the
moment,” Link said.

“It’d be great to be a kid forever,”
Railan said.

Link motioned for him to follow.
“I’ll show you my house.” Railan followed Link outside to his house. The
climbed the ladder and went inside. The smallness of the house surprised
Railan, but he supposed it made sense if a person remained a child for life.

“I take it these houses weren’t
designed for adults,” Railan said. “It’s nice though. It must be great to live
here; waking up every morning to the sounds and smells of the forest. And you
have so much neat stuff.” Railan looked at all the trinkets that Link had
collected over the years, but what captured his attention were the swords. Link
saw his interest and handed Railan one of the blades. He held it carefully,
surprised at the weight. “This is really heavy. But it feels balanced too. I
can’t imagine how much strength and training it must take to master this.”

“I was kind of a natural at it. But
it still took practice. Later I’ll show you some techniques and let you give it
a try.” Railan handed the sword back and Link returned it to its place on the
wall. Railan looked at some of the other things Link had. He picked up a small,
simple book and flipped through it. The pages were blank, except for one in the
middle. It had writing on it in a language he didn’t know. Link took the book
and translated for him. “It says ‘You are getting close, but your mission is
far from complete. You will become the hero of another time, on a journey that
no one will remember. No matter how hard it gets, remember that I’m here for
you and I won’t leave you behind.’ I don’t know what it’s supposed to
mean. I found this somewhere, but I don’t know where exactly. I was missing for
a day just a couple days ago, and I can’t remember where I was. It was like I
missed a whole day of my life. I know I’m supposed to remember something, but I
just can’t bring it out.”

“That’s strange.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Link
said. “Come outside, let me show you something.” Railan followed Link outside.
He went to the small stable where he’d stored the mysterious books he found.
Solo was standing there with a dumbfounded look on her face. “The other day, I
literally appeared out of nowhere along with a bunch of books in a language no
one knows.” He opened the door to the stable and was shocked to see it empty.
“Where’d they go?”

Solo spoke up, “I was just about to
go get one to look at it, and they all disappeared. Just a second ago, poof
and they were gone. What is going on here? You disappear for a day and have no
memory of what happened, then you come back with a bunch of foreign books, and
now the books have vanished into thin air.”

Link shook his head. “There’s
something significant about this,” he mumbled, lost in thought. He remembered
someone telling him something about a person or thing vanishing. “It’s like
they weren’t meant to be here...”

Railan looked in the stable and found
a small, fist-sized object. It had a rounded back, and a flat black front.
“What’s this thing?” Railan asked, showing it to Link. Link held it in his hand
and it felt familiar.

“I think I’ve seen this before,” Link
said, examining the object. Solo and Railan both leaned over his shoulder to
look at it. Link rubbed his finger over the shiny black part and a soft beeping
noise came from it. Tiny lights in many different colors appeared and all three
of them began to feel strange. They had a weird buzzing sensation as the world
around them turned a brilliant, blinding white.

The man watched from afar, always close,
but never too close. He had to be careful not to interact with anyone or
anything. The cloak her wore took care of that problem. When he wore it, he was
invisible. All he had to do was make sure he didn’t bump into anyone; he may
have been invisible, but he could still touch and interact with the world.
Interaction had to be kept to a minimum.

He’d kept a close tail on Link for
the last couple days, looking and waiting for something. The problem was he
didn’t know what to look for. He didn’t know if Link was the source of the
problem, or if someone else was. What he did know was that Link was the focal
point of the incursion. He knew something important was happening when Link,
his sister, and his friend disappeared. Technology like that didn’t exist in
this time, so something was amiss.

The man looked at his wrist device
and tried to track where Link went. After several minutes of searching, he
found him. He was in a place that he shouldn’t be. His wrist gadget was telling
him that Link was far underground, inside solid rock. But that couldn’t be
right, he was still getting a signal. He knew what his job was, and what the
risks were. So he took a deep breath and commanded the wrist gadget to send him
to the same place Link had gone.

When the blinding light subsided, the
three opened their eyes. The forest was gone. They stood inside some kind of
huge cavern, bigger than the eye could judge. It was brightly lit with a plain,
white light that seemed to come from everywhere at once. “What is this place?”
Solo and Railan asked simultaneously. Link stood still, staring at the huge
metal platform in the middle of the room. Suddenly a deluge of memories flooded
his mind, almost overwhelming him. It made sense now. He could remember.

“I know what this place is,” Link
said, barely above a whisper. “This is the machine that caused the tragedies.”
Without explanation, Link ran towards the huge horseshoe-shaped shelf surrounding
the platform. Dumbfounded, Solo and Railan followed Link. He ran around the
shelf and stopped when he saw the panel with the red and green rectangles. He
started pulling them out of the holes and throwing them on the ground, smashing
them with his boots.

“What is this?” Solo asked, worried
about Link’s sudden change in demeanor. “What are you doing?”

“We have to destroy this, all of
this,” Link said. “The future depends on it.” Link stopped stepping on the
rectangles and rummaged around the boxes strewn about the room until he found
one full of tools. He pulled out three large mallets and handed one each to
Solo and Railan. “Take these. Go to that shelf there and start smashing things.
Just break everything.”

“But why?” Solo asked.

“Just do it, I’ll explain later.”
Link went to work smashing everything in sight. Every button and protrusion
from the device was victim to his wrath. Solo and Railan decided that if Link
was so adamant about destroying the object, that he must’ve had a good reason.
They followed his command and started breaking things. “A terrible future is
coming if we don’t disable this thing. I won’t let that happen. I won’t let
Hyrule be conquered, and I won’t let my family die. It’s not going to happen!”
Link continued his path of destruction with almost insane glee. He continued
destroying until he finally exhausted himself and collapsed to the floor. Solo
ran to him.

“Link! Link! What’s wrong,” she asked
desperately.

Link was tired and out of breath, but
not injured. “This whole thing, it’s a time machine. An evil person is going to
use it to change the future to something horrible. I have to destroy it before
that can happen.” Link tried to calm himself down. “Let me catch my breath, and
we can do more.”

All three of them leaned against the
shelf and rested, not saying anything to each other. Solo was worried about
Link, and Railan was so confused that he didn’t know what to think. Their
attention was caught when there was a loud whoosh noise and a flash of
light. A person emerged from the light, but was to far away to tell who it was.
As the figure approached, Link grew tense. The person had the telltale red hair
and physique of a Gerudo woman. Link stood and drew the dagger that he always
kept on his belt. Without warning he charged the woman. At the last second, she
dodged his attack and flung him several feet away from her. “You little twerp!”
the woman shouted. “You ruined everything! You’ll pay for this.” She drew a
huge, curved scimitar and took a battle stance.

“Koros!” Link yelled back at her. “I
know what you’re trying to do to the future, and I won’t let you. I’m going to
kill you.” Link charged Koros and their knives clanged together. Her weapon was
far superior to Link’s, but his prowess and agility gave him at least an equal
chance. They danced around each other, striking, parrying and dodging. Link
faked an attack on her right and went for her left side as she tried to dodge.
She caught his arm as she struck and pushed him to the floor. He only managed
to gash her on the side.

Railan stood in shocked horror at the
display before him. Solo couldn’t take it anymore and picked up a wrench off
the floor. While Link was on the ground, Solo hurled the wrench at Koros and it
hit her hard in the shoulder. She turned around and glared at Solo. “You little
bitch!” While she was distracted, Link got up and charged her. He managed to
bury the knife in her right shoulder, disabling her arm. Link backed off and
Koros stumbled before she picked up the scimitar with her left hand and continued
to fight. Link tried to dodge, but he misstepped and Koros took immediate advantage
of it. She lunged forward and drove her sword into Link’s abdomen.

He felt the pressure of the blade
being driven into his gut, but he surprisingly didn’t feel much pain. He
stumbled and swayed before finally losing his balance and crashing to the
ground. He coughed up blood and nearly choked. The sounds around him grew
quieter and quieter as his senses dulled.

The cloaked man found himself inside
a huge cavern. He knew exactly what this was, but he didn’t have the time to
examine the machine. He could hear Link and his friends in the distance.
Banging noises echoed through the chamber, and he realized that someone was
trying to smash something. The man broke into a dead run, going as fast as he
could to reach them before they caused irreparable damage.

As he got closer, he saw that Link
and a woman were fighting. Link had a small knife, and the woman had a huge
sword; the advantage was definitely hers. He had to stop the fight before he
was seriously injured. The man’s nightmare came true when Link stumbled and the
woman thrust the sword into him. Just as Link fell to the ground, the man leapt
for Koros and tackled her to the ground. Without any conscious thought, he
removed a small, needle-like device from his pocket and stuck her in the neck.
Instantly she fell still, unconscious and temporarily paralyzed.

The man felt a familiar tingling
sensation over his whole body, and he knew that his cloak had failed. He was
now visible. He immediately tended to the fallen Link, who was barely alive. He
was moaning and coughing up blood. Solo was frantic and punching and kicking
the man. “Leave him alone!” Solo screamed, trying to pull him away from Link.

“Calm down, I’m an expert,” the man
insisted. He pushed Solo away and tried to help Link. The sword was jutting out
of his stomach and Link was futilely trying to pull it out. “Stop. Leave it
there; pulling it out will only make it worse.” Solo and Railan both hovered
over the mysterious man, holding large wrenches and ready to beat the man
senseless.

“Who are you?” Solo demanded.

“My name is Orlin,” the man said.
“I’m here to help. You both need to stand back. I can help Link, but I need to
take him away for a while. Please don’t interfere.” The man pulled a small,
square device out of his pocket. It had a tiny screen on it with letters and
little lights. He pushed a couple buttons and the device beeped. Link, Koros,
and Orlin began to glow bright blue. Solo didn’t know what was happening, so
she jumped on top of the man, and Railan followed, wanting to help his new
friend. They both started to glow and an instant later, all five of them
disappeared.

Chapter 4

A short, skinny man with glasses sat in front of his
console at the Temporal Control station, watching and waiting for something to
happen. His only job was to monitor incoming and outgoing travelers. He had a
few minutes of work each day, followed by hours of boredom. He was about to doze
off when his screen beeped. He waved for his boss to come over. “Commander, we
have an incoming traveler.”

The commander went to the man to assess the situation.
“What’ve we got?”

The man looked at his screen and read the codes. “It’s
Orlin’s signature. I’m receiving signals for a medical emergency and security
protocols.”

The commander pushed the button on his communicator.
“Send medical and security teams to the portal immediately.” The commander
noticed a confused look on the other man’s face. “What’s wrong?”

The other man examined his screen closely. “I’m detecting
five life signs.”

The commander activated his communicator again. “We need
to enact quarantine protocols for minus two thousand years.” The commander
jogged away from the console to stand in front of the portal. The portal was a
giant circular floor fifty feet in diameter, standing on a platform about ten
feet off the ground. A transparent, glass-like structure completely surrounded
and enclosed the platform. There was an outer ring between the portal circle and
the glass, divided by a waist-high railing. Security guards with weapons stood
behind the railing, prepared for everything. On the wide ramp that led to the
glass circle, a team of doctors with gurneys and medical kits waited for the
travelers to arrive. The commander stood on the side of the ramp, waiting for
his agent to arrive.

“The subjects are approaching the temporal threshold,”
the monitor said. A loud rumbling noise filled the cavernous room and the circle
glowed a bright blue. There was a flash and a crack like thunder and five people
appeared on the platform. The security guards aimed their weapons at everyone
and the medical team rushed to help the injured. Orlin pointed to Link, who
still had the sword sticking out of his chest.

“Treat the boy,” Orlin ordered. “Non-genetic treatment,
he can’t receive anything that will add to the genome. You have to save him at
all costs.” The medical team loaded Link onto a gurney and whisked him away.
Koros remained unconscious and Railan and Solo were moaning and rolling around.
They were too disoriented to know what was going on. Orlin stood up and pointed
to Koros. “Lock her up and treat her as a dangerous threat. Those other two are
friends of Link’s. They need to be sent back.”

The commander cleared everyone out of the portal room,
leaving Railan and Solo behind. “Send them back where they came from,” the
commander ordered. The workers quickly set out to activate the time machine to
send Railan and Solo back before they were conscious of what was happening. The
high-pitched whine of charging capacitors filled the room.

“Setting timeframe for immediate return,” said a worker
over the intercom. “Two travelers. Full charge in ten seconds.” The ten seconds
counted down, but nothing happened. The ever-present background noise from the
machine ceased, leaving the room in eerie silence.

“What the hell happened?” The commander demanded. He ran
to the main control console, a large rectangular screen fifteen feet wide. A
dozen workers sat in front of smaller screens, which were positioned on a curved
shelf directly in front of the main screen. The people in front of the main
screen monitored all of the time machines systems, and knew everything that was
going on.

One of the workers, in charge of machine operations,
swiveled his chair around to face the commander. “The capacitors charged, but
the portal didn’t activate. I’m waiting for the error computer to process the
information.” He looked back at his screen. “The capacitors were discharged into
the chronon field coils, but nothing happened.” There was a beep and the worker
read the information on the screen. “It looks like we have a fatal stop error.
There was some kind of feedback into the field coils and the machine went into
safe mode to prevent an overload. The temporal core shut down. It’ll take two
days minimum to get it running, and that’s if there’s nothing wrong with
it.”

“Dammit,” the commander swore again. He looked at the
rest of the controllers. “Is there anything else I need to know?” The rest of
them shook their heads. Satisfied for now, the commander went back to the portal
to meet Orlin. He was explaining to the security guards how to handle Koros.

“Keep her under constant guard,” Orlin said to the
guards. “Tie her up. Don’t let her even move. Put in an IV and a catheter if you
have to, but keep her alive.” He looked up at the commander. “There was nothing
I could do. Link was mortally wounded in a fight, and I had to bring him back to
save him. He’s the focal point. If he dies, there won’t be much of a Hyrule left
to protect. And the woman is the perpetrator.”

“And what about those two?” the commander asked, pointing
to Railan and Solo.

Orlin sighed. “That was an accident. They jumped into my
event horizon. I just gave them a three hour sedative, so they’ll be out for a
while.”

“We’ve never brought any natives back with us,” the
commander said sternly. “You’ll be lucky if you get out of prison before you
die. And we can’t send them back, the core shut down.”

Orlin waved over a few security guards. “Put those two
into a secured multi-room guest suite. Remove all the electronics from the rooms
and as much technology as you can. No TVs, computers, hair dryers, nothing. Give
them only natural foods, some fruit or something. But make sure they don’t have
anything that can give them non-native immunities. Put them both in bed. You
have two hours.” The guards grabbed Railan and Solo and left.

Orlin stood up and stretched. The commander glared at him
and motioned for him to follow. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Link opened his eyes, wondering if everything had been a
dream. He sat up and frantically ran his hands over his abdomen, searching for
the gaping wound. Nothing was there. But something didn’t feel right. He was
sitting on his bed in his tree house, alone. His intuition told him that none of
this was real. The world around him was dim and still, as if all life had been
sucked out of it. There was no wind, no noise, none of the normal background of
everyday life. He could distinctly remember fighting with Koros, and what the
result had been. He felt like retching at the memory of the sword being plunged
into him; he could feel his flesh tearing and taste the blood in his mouth. But
no sign of his wound existed.

He’d experienced certain out-of-body experiences and
hallucinations, but this was too different. There was nothing here. All he could
hear were his own thoughts. He felt like he was blindfolded and gagged inside of
a burlap sack. The complete lack of stimuli was extremely unsettling. The only
thing he could think of was that he was dead. That sword wound had to have
killed him, no one could survive that. If this was death, then everything he’d
been taught was a lie. Spending all of eternity alone? That was not something he
could tolerate. He didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to his loved
ones.

Link turned his head and was startled when he saw a man
standing there. He was wearing a simple blue tunic with brown trousers. He was
about Link’s height, with blonde hair and blue eyes. The man looked to be about
thirty years old, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d never seen this man before, but
he seemed familiar. “Who are you?” Link demanded. “Why am I here? I’ m sick of
these stupid dreams that aren’t dreams. If you want to say something to me, then
say it.”

The man smiled. “Feisty, just as I expected,” the man
said. “I’m sorry, but at the moment you are unable to communicate in any manner
other than this.” He lifted his arms and gestured to his surroundings. “This is
a bit cliché, don’t you think? I know you’ve had experiences like this before. I
really would rather talk to you face-to-face.”

“Unconscious would about cover it,” the man replied.
“Dying would also be accurate. But let’s hope that doesn’t come to fruition.
Since you are currently incapacitated, this was the only way I could talk to
you.”

“Where am I? Where’s my body?”

“Right now, you are in an operating room.” Link gave him
a weird look. “Lucky for you, a man with good intentions came just in the nick
of time. He brought you back to his home and a team of very skilled doctors are
repairing the damage to your body. That was some fight. I’m sorry it ended that
way. I know that you’re a skilled fighter, and that bitch just got lucky.”

“How could someone fix a wound like that? I know I should
be dead.”

“Different peoples have different skills,” the man said.
“Where you’re from, doctors can’t heal a wound like that. Where your rescuer is
from, doctors can do that easily. I think you’re going to be fine. No matter how
hard it gets, remember that I’m here for you and I won’t leave you behind.”

Link narrowed his eyes. “Are you reading my mind? Stop
that now.”

The man shook his head. “Private thoughts are private. I
know that line because I’m the one who wrote it. I left that book for you to
find. I’m not allowed to leave behind artifacts; even talking to you violates
the rules. But frankly, this is too important. Breaking a couple rules won’t
matter in the grand scheme of things.”

“Are you going to tell me who you are, or are we going to
have to beat around the bush? I’m really sick of metaphors and hallucinations
and weird, mystical apparitions. Out with it.”

“I’m your father,” the man replied. “Simple enough?”

The expression on Link’s face went from shocked, to
confused, to happy, and back to shocked. He didn’t know what to feel. He didn’t
know if he believed it. The man did bear somewhat of a resemblance to himself, a
little. “I never met you. Even my mother told me that you couldn’t appear to me
like this.”

“But she said that I might be able to some day,” his
father countered. “You’re an extraordinary young man, with powers far beyond
anything any other person could dream of. It’s reasonable that your parents
would be the same way, isn’t it?”

“She said you couldn’t join her, that the Vinculum wasn’t
open to you because you weren’t an Oracle.”

“You’re absolutely right. I never was an Oracle. But just
because I didn’t have powers in life doesn’t mean that I don’t have them now.
True enlightenment can only happen after one sheds his physical body. Your
mother is currently in the process of discovering this. The Vinculum is like a
stepping stone, but it’s still tied to the physical body. You have to give up
your ties to the physical world in order to ascend.”

“Why am I here? Does this have anything to do with the
horrible future that my older self told me about?”

“Yes, it does, and more.” His father suddenly stopped and
looked up. “You have to go now. The doctors have fixed you, and you’re going to
wake up. I’ll be back.” His father vanished and a strange, disconnected feeling
came over Link. He felt sick and dizzy, and the false world around him
disappeared into blackness.

Orlin sat casually in the chair in front of the
commander’s desk, waiting to be debriefed. The commander sat down behind his
desk with a loud sigh. “So, care to tell me why we have four people from the
past currently here?”

“It was necessary to complete the mission,” Orlin
replied. “The other two were an accident, they jumped on me when I tried to help
Link. They shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Well, they damn well might be a problem if we can’t send
them back! In case you didn’t notice, the machine is down. The scientists are
running simulations to see how bad of an effect this little stunt is going to
cause.”

“That woman I brought back was tampering with the a
machine in the past. That’s where our temporal incursion originated. I was
following Link around, and things got weird from there. He actually disappeared
from the timeline for a day. I don’t know where he went, but I know that the
woman is behind it.”

“They’re from a primitive time,” the commander said, not
impressed with Orlin’s story. “They don’t have time travel.”

“She was using an ancient time machine.”

The commander’s jaw dropped. “That’s impossible. They
didn't have that kind of technology back. We would’ve detected it long ago.”

“This machine was in working condition. The temporal
shielding was still operating. The only way I discovered it was when Link used
some artifact from that place and teleported to the machine. I tracked his
signature there. Everything was intact. There were still papers on people’s
desks.”

The commander rubbed his chin. “This changes everything.
I’ll have to talk to the Council. In the meantime, you have to check on the boy
and his friends. We can’t keep them unconscious forever. You have to make up
some story to tell them. Minimal impact, do you
understand? I want the incursion factor for this to be less than one. Now
go.”

Solo rolled over in her bed and groaned. She felt like
she’d been asleep for days. She was groggy and her mouth was horribly dry. But
the bed felt strange, it was way too soft. She tried to remember what had
happened, and when the memories hit her. She shot up and looked around
frantically. She was in a place she’d never seen before. It was obviously a
bedroom, with a small nightstand, a desk, and a couple chairs. A smooth, white
light came from two tubes in the ceiling, and she stared at them in fascination
for a minute.

Solo had to figure out where she was. She got out of bed
and check the closed door; it was unlocked. She opened it and peeked outside.
There was some kind of living area out front, with two couches, a small table,
and a shelf where she expected the fireplace to be. On the right side of the
room was an open area with a dining table and what looked to be a kitchen. There
was a large basin and some kind of boxy device that vaguely reminded her of a
stove. What caught her attention were the huge bowl of fruit and pitcher of
water on the table. She ran over to the table and grabbed the pitcher, drinking
half of it.

She sat down in relief to let her stomach settle. She
heard a creak and saw Railan opening a door. The rear wall had three doors,
Solo’s had been on the right, and Railan came out of the left door. She didn’t
know what was behind the third door. Railan looked bleary-eyed and half asleep;
he stumbled over to Solo and sat down next to her. “What is going on?” he asked,
yawning widely. “Where the hell are we?”

“I have no idea,” Solo replied. “This place is weird.”
Everything had a strange design to it. All the furniture was squarish, and was
made of materials that they couldn’t identify.

Railan pounded his head on the table. “What’s going to
happen next? I’ve never had such a life-changing experience. Is knowing Link
always this strange? I mean, is it normal for you guys to get into sword
battles, be warped to strange caves, and then wake up in some other dimension or
something?”

Solo laughed. “You know, you probably wouldn’t believe me
if I told you.” Railan just shook his head. “I need to find out what happened to
Link. If he dies, I’m going to skin that woman alive.” Solo went to the middle
door and opened it, revealing a small room with a sink, mirror, bathtub, and
something that vaguely resembled the hole in an outhouse. Solo growled in
frustration and went to the door at the opposite side of the room. She tried to
turn the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. She pulled at the door and banged on it.
“Hey! Somebody open this door!” Solo was angry now. She picked up on of the
dining table chairs and smashed it against the door. Only the chair was
damaged.

She stood back when she heard the sound of keys jingling
from behind the door. “Stand back,” said a voice from behind the door. “I’m
unarmed, and I’m here to help.” Solo picked up another chair and prepared to
attack if necessary. Railan followed suit and picked up a chair. The door
opened, and Orlin stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He held up his
hands in a gesture of peace. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

Solo dropped the chair and confronted him, standing
inches from his face. “You!” she growled, pointing an accusing finger. “You’re
the one that came out of nowhere in that cave! What did you do to Link? Where is
he? Don’t you dare say he’s dead, because you’ll be the first one I’ll
kill.”

Orlin shook his head. “Not yet, I’m sorry. He’s still
recovering. He had a very severe injury, and it’ll take a few hours for him to
recover from the surgery he had. I’ll bring him here as soon as he’s able.”

“Where are we?” Railan asked.

Orlin tried to think of what to say. These people were
pre-industrial, but not primitive. He was thankful that the Hylian language had
only changed slightly since their time. “I’ve taken you to a far away place. We
have a lot of different things here that you’ve probably never seen before. I
want you both to know that you are going to get back home, and everything will
be all right.”

“Are we prisoners?” Solo asked bluntly.

“Not technically, no. But you are confined to these
rooms. The world outside here is dangerous, and it’s for your own protection.
All your needs will be taken care of. You will have food, water, clothing, and
anything else you want. You won’t be here for long, just a couple days. Follow
me and I’ll show you how everything here works.”

Link slowly faded back into reality. He could hear
muffled voices coming from not too far away, but he couldn’t make them out. His
whole body felt sore, especially his abdomen. He felt nauseous, his mouth was
dry, and his head was spinning. Link opened his eyes and squinted at the harsh
light. Once his eyes adjusted, he examined his surroundings. He was in a small
room that was stark white. The floor was white, as well as the walls, the table
in the corner, and the bed he was on. Even the sheets and gown he wore were
white. He’d never seen so much white before.

Link sat up and winced. He pulled up the flimsy gown and
examined his abdomen. There was no sign of his injury except for a faint pink
scar. The man claiming to be his father was correct: someone had healed him. He
said a silent prayer of thanks to the goddesses. Upon further inspection of his
body, he saw a strange tube attached to his hand, which le to a clear bag full
of water--or something that looked like water--hanging from a pole. There was
also some kind of circle stuck to his chest. He picked at it, but was afraid to
take it off; same for the tube in his hand.

The door to his room was cracked open, and he could see a
little outside. Two people stopped and talked in the hallway. He tried to listen
to what they were saying. “You owe me five hundred rupees,” said one man. “I
told you the kid looked strong. He went through the tissue regenerator in three
hours. You lost the bet.”

“Fine,” said the other man with a sigh. He saw the second
man hand the first man some slips of paper. “But you know it’s unethical to bet
on a patient’s recovery time.”

Link saw the first man put the slips of paper into a
small black pouch, which he then put into his pocket. “Yeah, tell that to the
nurses. They bet on who’s gonna be the next to get a venereal disease.” The
second man commented on how sick that was and walked off. The first man laughed
and entered Link’s room. Link stared at him. The man was of average height, with
thinning brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a long white coat with plain
blue clothes underneath. “Hello young man,” he said. He was speaking Hylian, but
had a strange accent. “You’re lucky to be alive. I’m the doctor that healed
you.”

“How could you heal a wound like that? I should’ve died.
What kind of magic do you have?”

The doctor laughed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t really tell
you much. We have skills much better than doctors where you come from. We don’t
use magic. But I will admit, some of the stuff we do looks like magic. But
what’s important is that you’re healed completely. You’ll be sore for a couple
days. Don’t do anything strenuous for a few weeks, because your body will be
tender and a little easier to injure. Also, your thirst and appetite will be
unusually high for the next few days. Don’t worry, it’s normal. If you’re
hungry, eat.”

The doctor took his coat off and put it on the table. He
opened a drawer and pulled out a roll of gauze. “I’m going to take all these
tubes out of you.” Link flinched when the man tried to touch him. “Relax, I’m
not going to hurt you. The thing in your hand might bleed a little bit, but it’s
nothing serious.” Link felt like he could trust this man, so he nodded for him
to continue. The man removed some sticky tape from the back of Link’s hand and
pulled the tube out. Link watched in fascination as he saw a tiny needle come
out. It bled a little and the doctor dabbed at it and wrapped the bandage around
his hand. Then he pulled the circle off his chest. “There, all done. Just
remember to take it easy. I’m going to go get the man who brought you here.
He’ll take you to your room. Just stay here, I’ll be right back.” The doctor
left and closed the door behind him.

Something inside Link told him to look for money. He
remembered the two men mentioning rupees. Link dug in the pockets of the
doctor’s coat and pulled out the black thing he’d put his money into. It was
smooth leather and folded in half. He opened it and saw many slips of colored
paper inside. He looked at the papers closely. They had numbers in the corners,
pictures of people on the front, and text that said Bank
of Hyrule and One Hundred Rupees. The spelling
was a little strange, but he could read it. These papers had to represent real
money somehow. He took all the papers and put the wallet back into the jacket.
Link folded up the papers and stuffed them into his boots, which were at the
base of his bed. His boots were the only things left of his clothing, he assumed
that his other clothes had been ruined.

The door opened and the man who saved him walked inside.
“Hi, Link. My name’s Orlin. Sorry to bring you to a weird place, but I had to do
it to save you. You’re way too important to history.”

“Are you going to explain what’s happening?”

“Not yet. I have to talk to my superiors first. I’ll take
you to your room where you can rest. Your sister and your friend are there.
Sorry about the gown, I’ll get you some decent clothes after you get settled.”
All Link wore was a flimsy gown and baggy pants made of the same material. He
did like the socks, though. They were soft and comfortable. He put his boots and
tried not to let his discomfort from the wad of papers show. Orlin opened the
door and led Link outside.

They walked down a plain white hallway lined with dozens
of doors. Link tried to memorize every twist and turn in case he needed to
escape. They turned a few corners and walked down other identical hallways,
stopping at a door that had the number 101 printed on it. Orlin took a key out
of his pocket and opened the door.

The second Link entered, Solo crashed into him and pulled
him into a hug. Link winced and Solo backed off. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I
didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I’m a little sore,” Link said.

“I was so worried about you. When I saw that woman stab
you, I thought you were going to die. But this Orlin guy was right. Thank you so
much.” She hugged Orlin and he smiled at her.

“I’ll have meals brought in a few minutes,” Orlin said.
“I showed them how to use everything here, so they’ll explain it to you. All of
you should just relax. I’ll need to talk to you later, but that probably won’t
be till morning. I’ll work on getting you home. I’m not going to leave you here
stranded. If you need anything, just knock on the door. There will be a guard
out there who will help you.” Orlin left and shut the door behind him.

“Link, you have to see the stuff here, it’s amazing,”
Solo said with giddy excitement. She dragged him over to the kitchen and showed
him the sink. “Okay, this is the sink. No big deal, right?”

“It’s no good, it has a hole in it,” Link pointed out. He
looked curiously at a metal pipe that stuck out of the wall and pointed down
toward the basin.

“Watch this,” Solo said with a smirk. She turned a knob
and water flowed steadily out of the pipe. “You don’t have to pump it or
anything; the water just keeps coming. And if you turn this other knob, the
water gets hot. The more you turn it, the hotter it gets.” Solo played with the
knobs, making the water hot, then cold, then hot again. “And it just goes down
this hole. I don’t know where it goes.”

Link was amazed at the simple device. He played with it a
bit until Solo urged him to follow her again. She took him to the opposite side
of the room and opened a door to reveal a tiny room with a sink, bathtub, and
toilet. Solo pointed to the sink. “This works the same way as the one in the
kitchen.” Then she went to the bathtub. “This works like the sink, too. If you
put that plug in the hole, you can fill up the tub and take a bath. And when
you’re done you just pull the plug and the water goes away. You don’t have to
heat up buckets of water or anything. It’s as hot as you want it. And this thing
even has a rain machine!”

Link looked at her weirdly. “A rain machine?”

She nodded enthusiastically. She turned on the water then
pulled a lever. The water stopped coming out of the faucet and started falling
from another pipe near the ceiling. Link stuck his hand in the falling water; it
was warm. “You can make your own rain. Isn’t that amazing? But that’s not the
best part.” She turned off the shower and showed Link a circular object that was
about knee-high. She lifted the lid and revealed a basin filled with water.
There was a large hole at the bottom, but the water didn’t drain.

“Why would anyone need a basin this low?” Link asked. The
shape and position of the fixture reminded Link of the holes in a latrine or
outhouse. But the hole in this thing was far to small for that. “So what’s this
for? Washing your feet or something?”

Solo giggled. “Nuh uh. You’re way off. You pee in
this.”

It was in the right place to be a latrine, but Link
couldn’t for the life of him figure out why it was full of water. “But it’s full
of water,” he said, scratching his head. “It would fill up and spill
everywhere.”

Solo smiled like she knew something he didn’t. “The water
is to carry the waste away. You go in the bowl and push down that silver lever.
Go ahead, try it.” Link pushed the lever and with a loud whoosh the water swirled down the hole. Not long after
the bowl magically filled. “See. You go in there and push the lever, and
everything goes away to wherever these holes lead to.”

Link nodded in amazement. “Yeah, but what if I have
to...”

Solo interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going
to say, “You put the first lid down and you can sit on it when you have to
poop.” She handed him a roll of toilet paper. “And you use this to wipe with it
and put it in the bowl. And when you’re done you push the lever and whoosh it’s gone. Feel this paper, it’s like silk. I’m
taking as much of this stuff back home with me as I can. I’m never using a corn
cob again.”

“I have to pee,” Link said suddenly. He pushed at Solo.
“Out.” Solo left Link alone and closed the door behind him.

“Hey Solo!” Railan called, waving Solo over to the dining
table. The table had plates and glasses set for three and at the center was a
whole roasted turkey. There were a couple bowls of vegetables, potatoes and a
pitcher of milk.

“Great, I’m so hungry,” Solo said. She raced to the table
and picked up a knife and started carving the turkey. She doled out portions to
each plate and sat down to wait for Link. A moment later the bathroom door
opened and Link came wandering out. His face brightened when he saw the food and
he eagerly sat down to eat.

“This is a turkey, right?” he asked, examining the food
closely before eating it.

“Tastes like it,” Solo mumbled with her mouth full,
almost unintelligible.

“Good enough for me,” Link said. He wolfed down his meal,
trying to quell his sudden raging hunger. For now he enjoyed his meal, trying
not to think of the problems that he would soon have to face.

Orlin and the commander stood nervously outside a door
with a sign that read Council Chambers. They were
waiting for their signal to enter. “I hope the Council sees things as
optimistically as you do,” the commander said.

“The Council will see you now,” said a woman secretary,
sitting behind a desk in the waiting room they were in. Orlin and the commander
nodded and entered the council chambers. The room was large and lavishly
decorated with plants and paintings. There was a large video screen on the wall
at the front of the room, which displayed all the statistics for every operation
in the entire complex. A long wooden table dominated the center of the room,
behind which sat the council members. The Council consisted of seven
members-four men and three-women, seated side-by-side on one side of the
table.

“Please be seated,” said the councilor in the center.
Orlin and the commander sat down and tried not to appear nervous. The Council
rarely spoke to agents first hand. Most of their orders were handed down the
chain of command. “We’ve read your reports. You did what you had to do, Agent
Orlin. But we are at somewhat of a crossroads now. The whole purpose of this
operation is to protect the past from tampering. Our entire existence has led to
this moment.”

A female councilor, sitting to the far left, spoke up,
“Our scans indicate that no ripples have yet propagated from the point of the
incursion.” She pressed a button on her console and a graphic representing the
timeline appeared on the wall screen. “There is a one hundred year arc starting
from the incursion point that is showing no ripples. We know a change has
occurred, but this change hasn’t affected history outside the hundred year arc.
The timeline is essentially frozen. Do you know what can cause this kind of
anomaly?”

“I’m not sure,” the commander replied.

The councilor continued, “When the focal point of a key
event is changed or removed, it creates a bubble in time; constraining timeline
changes to a relatively short period. However, the bubble will eventually burst
and the entire timeline will change instantaneously. This only happens with an
incursion factor of 9.9999 or higher. Level ten represents infinity. The higher
the incursion factor, the slower it takes for the bubble to burst. We estimate
that this bubble will burst in approximately fifteen days, present time.”

Another councilor, a man sitting third from the right,
continued, “We’ve examined the bubble more closely and have a partial record of
the events. It appears that the future, relative to the incursion point, changed
three times simultaneously. Every change was initiated by the focal point: the
young man named Link. We have reason to believe that he traveled three times
before being taken here. First he was sent ten years from timeframe zero. Then
at plus-forty years he was sent back thirty years to meet with his younger self
at plus-ten years. Because their temporal signatures didn’t match the native
timeline, no violation occurred.

“We believe that the future, relative plus-ten, was
horrible enough for the plus-forty Link to travel back to warn plus-ten Link.
Then the older Link sent the younger Link back to the time he was originally
taken from, plus a day to resynchronize his temporal signature. The older Link
returned to his time and resynchronized to his timeline.”

“Do we know why Link was sent ten years into his future
to begin with?” asked the commander.

The councilor who was talking continued, “The woman you
brought back, named Koros, was the perpetrator. She was trying to use the
ancient time machine to both push Link out of the continuum, and retrieve
several lost persons back into the continuum. She believed that removing Link
from the timeline would prevent him from interfering with her plans for world
domination. But she used the machine incorrectly, and ended up sending Link ten
years into the future.

“After he returned to his time, he tried to interfere and
the woman injured him. That leads us to the present.”

“Where did they find a time machine in the past?” asked
the commander. “This machine was built thirty years ago.”

“We aren’t at liberty to say,” the councilor in the
center said. A new graph with three peaks appeared on the wall screen. “This is
the result of our timeline projections. The computers ran thirty trillion
simulations and this is the average we came up with. As you can see, there are
three probable outcomes as of now. Normally we only have one.

“The first possible outcome is that history will change
by less than one percent, and things will remain basically the same. The second
outcome is a return to a pre-stone-age tribal society. The third outcome is
baffling. The computer gave us a ‘does not exist’ error. It’s like dividing by
zero; there is no result. This means that our universe will cease to exist, or
more accurately, never existed in the first place.”

The female councilor on the left spoke again, “Our
mission has always been to prevent or repair changes to history. But ideally, if
we could prevent time travel from even occurring in the first place, that would
be the most prudent. He needs to be sent back to destroy the device in the past.
Work on getting the core running again. Dismissed.”

Link had tried to make Solo sleep on the bed, but she had
insisted that he use it. Then Railan had offered his bed to Solo, and she
refused. She seemed quite content to sleep on the couch, so Link relented. Right
now he was trying to fall asleep, but to no avail. Too many bizarre thoughts
were running through his head. He still wondered if that vision of his father
had been real.

“Hello Link,” said a voice. He sat up, startled, and
looked at the intruder. It was the same man who had claimed to be his father. “I
said I’d come back. Sorry it wasn’t sooner, but there were some things I had to
do. I’m here now.”

“Are you real?” Link asked, reaching out to touch him.
But when his hand reached his father’s body, it passed through him like he
wasn’t even there. “What’s this...”

His father gave an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, but
ascension sheds my body. I can be here in spirit, but not in flesh. The only way
I could be here physically is if I descended; I would be mortal and lose all the
knowledge I’ve gained. I can do far more this way.”

“Why did you put that book by the time machine?” Link
asked.

“It caught your attention, didn’t it? You see, there are
rules that the Ascendants have to follow, or they are cast out. Ascension is a
higher level of existence, far greater than anything you could ever dream of.
Every soul has the potential, but not necessarily the worth or ability. The
whole universe is bound together by the life force. Life and death aren’t the
only forms of existence. There are many subtle levels. Many souls remain on
their worlds when their bodies die. Some join a kind of universal union of
souls, what most religions would call ‘heaven’ or the afterlife. It’s a
never-ending communion with others.”

“How is the afterlife different from ascension?” Link
asked.

“The level of knowledge and capacity to learn. In the
normal afterlife, a person’s knowledge can’t much exceed what they could have
learned in life. Ascension is far, far greater. The level of understanding that
an Ascendant has is incomprehensible. There are levels of ascension, from low to
high. The goal of all Ascendants is to achieve true enlightenment. That is the
goal of all life.”

“Have you reached enlightenment?” Link asked.

“No, I might never. No Ascendant has yet reached the
level of true enlightenment. It’s an infinite struggle.”

“Why am I here now?”

“The woman, Koros, was trying to interfere with the
natural order of things. Ganondorf is not just an evil madman, he used to be an
Ascendant. He originally lived far in the past, and used his powers to
eventually gain ascension. But when he did that, he helped his cronies ascend as
well. They were a terrible group of people, responsible for atrocities that have
never been duplicated in history. Their goal was to essentially enslave the
universe. They were very clever in hiding their intentions, but the others
eventually found out and cast them out. Ganondorf’s followers were doomed to
exist in a spiritual state, stuck between physical life and ascension. They’re
essentially stuck in a vast nothingness. Ganondorf was doomed to be reincarnated
over and over again. Ganondorf, although he was the mastermind, was determined
to be the least threatening. All of them had their memories wiped and were
barred from ever ascending again. More importantly, Ganondorf’s knowledge of the
true Triforce was removed. Some of the Ascendants have actively prevented him
from ever gaining that knowledge.”

Link looked angry. “Do you have any idea what I went
through to defeat him? And these self-righteous Ascendants decided to let him
live endless lives? They should have destroyed him.”

His father held out his hand to calm Link. “Wait a
minute, there’s more to it than that. A soul cannot be destroyed. It had to go
somewhere. The Ascendants believed that stripping him of his knowledge and
condemning him to repeated corporeal life was the best solution. His
never-ending quest for the false Triforce would also help to reinforce the myth
and protect the real power.”

“But what about all the people he’s killed!”

“That’s an unavoidable consequence. The Ascendants see
the universe on a scale far bigger than you could imagine. That is why you are
here. One of his followers, Koros, has discovered the truth about the Triforce.
She has been tampering with history ever since. She is the reason why these
people here built the time machine. She finally figured out what she had to do,
but you got in the way.”

“I...my future self told me about a horrible future after
I disappeared. He wanted to fix that. I did everything he said.”

His father gave a serious, solemn look. “It gets much
worse after that. The whole goal of Koros’s plan was to allow Ganondorf and his
followers to ascend again.”

“But you said that...”

“Yes, I said that the others would prevent him from
ascending again. But it’s about numbers. It takes a majority vote to cast a
member out. But it doesn’t take a vote to let people ascend for the first time.
Ganondorf’s goal is to accumulate as many brainwashed souls as he can. Once he
takes over the world, everyone will become his slave. He will hypnotize the
people into following him, and he will keep all the souls in limbo until he has
enough to form a majority. Once he has enough souls, they will all ascend at
once. Since they will be under his control, and he has a majority vote, he will
be able to cast out the other Ascendants. If that happens...I don’t even know. I
can’t begin to fathom what would happen.”

“So these supposedly enlightened people would let him do
something like that? Who’s the bad guy here?”

“Fighting him while he is descended is against the rules.
Ascendants are not allowed to interfere with life in
lower planes. It is the whole basis of ascension. If they interfered, then free
will would cease to exist, and therefore true enlightenment would cease to
exist. But the Ascendants aren’t all-knowing or all-powerful. They miss things.
They can’t watch all the time. And that’s how people like me and my friends can
protect non-ascended beings. For example, leaving that book for you was directly
interfering with the lower world. They wouldn’t see something that small.
Because we can’t interfere, it’s up to you to prevent this.”

Link grumbled. “Of course. It’s always up to me. Why am I always responsible for the
fate of the world? I just want to live a normal life. I don’t want this
responsibility.”

He could understand his son’s frustration. But he knew it
had to be done. “I’m sorry, but some people are just destined for more. You’re
one of them.”

“Wait...if you’re not allowed to interfere, then how come
you’re here talking to me? Isn’t that interfering?”

His father smiled. “You would think so. But that’s one of
those fuzzy things. It doesn’t qualify as direct interference. It’s more like a
spiritual communion, which is allowed. But I’m walking a fine line. I don’t care
what happens to me as long as you succeed.”

Link sighed. The duties of a hero never ended. He wished
he didn’t have to fight, but he was prepared to do so if he had to. “All right.
Tell me what to do.”

“The ancient time machine is very sophisticated and
destroying it from the outside is nearly impossible. The only way is to use the
time machine’s self-destruct. It’s very simple to activate, but you need the
key. Unfortunately, the key was lost shortly after the original builders
abandoned it. It has passed through numerous hands over the years, but no one
ever knew what it was. The key was lost again thousands of years ago, but was
recently found. Right now it’s in storage at the University of Hyrule, along
with millions of other artifacts. It was found in an archaeological dig, and the
scholars determined it to be of little historical value, so it’s in a box in a
warehouse. You need to go there and speak to the head of the archaeology
department. She will help you.”

“But how do I get out of here?” Link asked. “The door is
locked, and there aren’t any windows.”

“This room wasn’t designed for security. You can escape
through the vents. The vents will lead to a system of access tunnels normally
used to reach hidden parts of the complex. Nobody ever goes into these tubes
unless there’s a problem there. The tubes can also be used as emergency escape
routes. It’s idiot-proof. The tubes are marked with red arrows that say
‘Escape’. Just follow the arrows and it will lead you outside. It’s in the
middle of the city. People are friendly; tell them you’re a foreign student and
you want to visit the University Museum. You took the money from that doctor
right?”

Link’s eyes widened. “You knew about that?” His father
nodded. “I just had a feeling that I would need it. But how do I use those
things? They’re just pieces of paper.”

“Those papers have value in this time. Precious stones
are only used for jewelry now. Rupees are used the same way as at home, except
that here they use paper instead of jewels. There is a large white vent in the
kitchen. Pry it off the wall and crawl down the shaft until you reach another
vent; that one goes to the maintenance tubes. Bring Solo and Railan with you;
you might need their help. Leave before morning, within the next hour.”

“Can you promise me one thing?” Link asked.

“Talk to Solo, she needs you.”

His father smiled. “Don’t worry, I already did. Now go
and find the key. Once you get it, I will give you further instructions. I trust
you, son.”

His father vanished. Link sat on the bed for a few
minutes and pondered everything he’d been told. He didn’t want to do all these
things and have so much responsibility for so many people. Why did the goddesses
give him this fate? He yearned to have a normal, simple life. But every time he
thought it was within reach, he had another mission to go on. Link took a deep
breath and stood up to face his next challenge.

He left the bedroom and went to wake up Solo first. She
had originally fallen asleep on the couch, but was now sprawled on the floor
several feet from it. She was snoring lightly and muttering things in her sleep.
“I love you Daddy...” she mumbled. Link smiled; his father must have come to her
in a dream. He hoped it really was him, and not just an actual dream. Link
nudged her with his foot. She grumbled and rolled over, but didn’t wake up. Link
crouched and shook her shoulder.

Link put his hand on her shoulder. “It wasn’t a dream. He
really was here. He talked to me too. We have a mission to go on.”

“That’s what he told me,” Solo said. “He said to follow
you and help you.” She smiled contentedly. “And he said he loved me.”

“We have to go. Take anything we might need and wait in
the kitchen. I’ll go wake up Railan.” Link went to the other room to get Railan.
He was lying on the bed face-first with one arm hanging over the side. Link
shook him gently.

“No mama, I don’t wanna dig up potatoes today,” Railan
mumbled. Link shook harder and Railan awoke with a start. “What? Huh?” He looked
around in confusion for a moment until he remembered where he was. “Oh yeah.
What do you want? Is it time to get up?”

“Yes.” Link looked at Railan and realized that he was
still wearing his clothes and shoes. “Well, you’re dressed, so that’s good. Come
on, we have to escape.” Link grabbed Railan’s hand and pulled him out of bed.
Railan followed reluctantly.

“Wait...what? Why are we escaping?”

“Because I have a mission to complete.”

“Mission? Do you ever have a
normal day?”

“Not really,” Link replied. He met Solo in the kitchen
and looked for the vent. He finally found it near the floor. It looked just
barely wide enough to fit through. “I need to get this grate off.” He looked
closely and saw that it was attached with screws. He dug through one of the
drawers and found a blunt-tipped knife. With a few muttered curses, Link took
out the screws and pried the panel off.

“We have to go through there?” Railan said in a
disappointed tone.

“Yeah, everyone follow me.” Link crawled in first,
followed by Railan, then Solo. The vent was a tight squeeze, but they managed to
crawl through it. It was only about twenty feet until they reached a large grate
at the end of the shaft. Link looked through the grate and saw the crawlspace
his father told him about. Link awkwardly turned his body and kicked the grate
hard. It flew out and landed with a clang. Link squeezed through the hole, and
helped Railan and Solo.

The maintenance tubes were about four feet high, not high
enough to stand up, but enough to move easily. “I’m looking for red arrows...”
Link said, looking everywhere. He saw a long, red stripe with Escape printed below it, and arrows pointing toward the
left. “Let’s go this way. We’re following the stripe that says ‘Escape’.” Railan
and Solo both groaned and followed Link, crawling on their hands and knees. The
crossed intersecting tubes and turned several corners before coming out into a
cylindrical open space about seven feet high and four feet in diameter. There
was a large red sign on the wall that said Emergency
Escape Hatch and a large arrow pointing up. There was a ladder that went so
far down that he couldn’t see the bottom. He looked up and could barely see a
round opening at the top; it was at least thirty levels up. Link grabbed the
rungs and motioned for them to follow. “We’re going up,” Link said.

“I don’t suppose this is a good time to mention that I
don’t like high places, is it?” Railan complained.

“Just take it one step at a time,” Solo said. “Link will
be above you and I’ll be below you. You’ll be fine.” Railan took a deep breath
and started climbing. They made slow, but steady progress upwards. Railan didn’t
want to admit how nervous he was, so he tried to hide it. He thought pleasant
thoughts and kept telling himself it was just a few more steps. After ten
minutes of climbing, or halfway to eternity from Railan’s perspective, they
reached the top of the ladder.

The room they were in was small and square. At the
opposite end from the ladder was a stairway that led to a door on the ceiling.
Link walked up the stairs and examined the door. It was idiot-proof. A sign said
Turn Wheel Counterclockwise to Unlock. Push Door Up to
Open. Link followed the instructions and opened the door. They stepped
out into another dimly-lit room, but this one was much larger. Boxes and other
miscellaneous junk were strewn about.

“Do these dark rooms ever end?” Railan whined.

Link pointed to the red arrows on the ground. “We follow
those.” They walked a few more feet until they came to a single flight of stairs
that led to a door. The sign on the door said Fire
Exit. Link opened the door and they stepped out into an alley between two
buildings. A light breeze of cool air made them sigh with relief.

“Finally, we’re outside!” Railan cheered, holding his
arms up in celebration. They followed the alley out to the street and their eyes
widened in awe at what stood before them. All of the buildings seemed to be made
of glass, and were unimaginably tall. None of them had ever seen a building that
tall. And all of the buildings were huge. The street
stretched on seemingly forever in both directions, and both sides were lined
with buildings.

It was early morning, just after dawn, but there were
many people out and about. They wore strange-looking clothes in colors that none
of them had ever seen before. Link found it strange that people were walking
only on the pale-colored part of the street, and not the black part. The only
thing he could think of was that the wider black part was for carriages only.
Solo jumped back in shock when a huge mechanical beast whizzed by at a speed
faster than anything they’d ever seen. They watched in amazement as more of the
machines rolled by. They vaguely resembled carriages, because they had four
wheels, and the size was about the same. But the similarities ended there. They
were made of glass and metal and came in every color. They could see people
inside the machines, but there was no indication of how the things were supposed
to move. There were no horses, oxen, mules or anything that could possibly pull
them. The machines made loud rumbling noises that sounded unlike any animal.

“What are these things?” Solo asked, her initial fear
wearing off. Now she watched the machines with curiosity.

“Some kind of carriage, I guess,” Link replied.

“Did you see how fast those things were going?” Railan
said with amazement. “I’m not walking in the street if those things are going to be flying by.”

“Good idea,” Link said. They stayed close together and
noticed that a lot of people gave them weird looks. “I think we’re really
sticking out. Everyone is staring at us.”

A group of men walked by and one of them made a joke
about the circus being in town. “What’re you looking at!” Solo growled at them.
Link patted her shoulder to calm her down.

“Don’t worry about them,” Link assured her. “Nobody knows
who we are. This is obviously a gigantic city, there’s bound to be lots of
people who look out-of-place.”

“I’m kind of hungry,” Solo said. “Where do people get
food around here? I don’t see a single fruit cart or anything.”

“There has to be a restaurant or something,” Railan said.
“People need to eat.” They wandered around looking for any kind of sign of a
restaurant or food vendor.

“This place really is loud,” Link commented. He’d never
heard so much noise in his entire life. But he noticed that no one else seemed
to mind the never-ending rumble. Link suddenly stopped and motioned for Solo and
Railan to look through the giant window in the building next to them. “There’s
people eating in there, they had to get the food from somewhere.” They saw
dozens of people sitting at tables, eating and chatting away. They walked to a
door made of glass and read the sign above that said Good
Eats.

“Definitely a restaurant,” Solo said. She opened the door
and stepped inside, followed by Link and Railan. There was a long counter in the
back with a line of people waiting behind it. A sign on the ceiling said simply
Order Here. Link watched what the other people were
doing to get an idea of how to get his food. A person would step up to the
counter and tell a lady something, they would exchange pieces of rupee paper,
and the person would step off to the side. A person behind the counter called
out numbers and the people who had stepped to the side came up and took trays of
food.

“What kind of food do they have?” Solo asked, wondering
where the waiters and menus were.

“Look, there’s a list on the wall,” Railan said, pointing
to the menu. The items were listed with numbers, the name of the meal, and the
price.

“What’s a ‘Zora Surprise’?” Link asked to no one in
particular. “I certainly hope Zoras aren’t considered food here; that’d be
horrible.” He sighed in frustration. “I’ve never heard of any of these foods
before.”

“Hmm...’Double Beef Patty’ sounds edible,” Solo said.
“It’s the only thing on the menu that I can recognize.” The other two nodded in
agreement. “It says ‘beef’, so it has to be food.” The line moved quickly and it
was finally their turn.

“Yeah, what can I get ya?” asked the girl behind the
counter, in a voice that showed her obvious apathy.

“We’ll have three double beef patties,” Link replied.

The girl pushed a couple buttons on the machine in front
of her. “You want fries with that?”

“Fries? Um...yeah sure.”

The woman punched a couple more buttons. “What would you
like to drink?”

Link hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know...how about
milk?”

She punched another button. “Anything else?” The three
shook their heads. “Okay, that’ll be ten thirty-seven.” Link took the wad of
folded bills out of his pocket. Link wondered if she had really meant one
thousand thirty-seven rupees.

“Pardon me,” Link asked. “How much was it?”

The girl sighed. “Ten rupees and thirty-seven fractions.”
Link had never heard of a rupee being divided by fractions. He sorted through
the bills until he found one that said Twenty Rupees.
He handed to the woman, and she opened a drawer, put the money in, and handed
him back a few pieces of paper and some coins. A slip of paper came out of the
machine and she gave it to Link. “Your order number is forty-two.” Link took the
paper and they stepped to the side as all the other people had done.

“How long do you think it’ll take?” Railan asked. “I
don’t want to stand here for an hour while they make the food.”

“Everybody else is standing, so maybe they make it really
fast,” Link said. So they waited for about three minutes until they heard their
number called. Link went to the counter and took the tray. The group found an
empty table and sat down. All three of them looked at the tray with mild
curiosity. There were no plates or utensils. Instead, there were three round
things wrapped in yellow paper, three small boxes with golden-brown things
sticking out of them, and three small paper cartons that said Milk.

“I thought this was supposed to be food,” Railan said
with a frown. He picked up one of the paper bundles and was relieved when it
felt soft and warm. “Why would they wrap it in paper?” He unwrapped the paper
and peered at the “food” in front of him. It consisted of two pieces of bread
with two pieces of meat in the middle. He lifted the bread and saw a red sauce,
what looked like cheese, and a slice of some green vegetable. “Doesn’t look too
bad. Are there forks or anything?”

Link looked around and noticed that no one was using any
utensils. People eating the same thing that they ordered were using their hands.
“I think we’re supposed to use our hands.” Link took a sandwich for himself and
gave the other to Solo. All three of them took bites at the same time.

“Hey, this is pretty good,” Solo said in surprise. She
grabbed one of the boxes and ate on of the long golden strings. “Oh, these
things are potatoes.” Link and Railan looked relieved and ate their fries.

After finishing their meals, they left the restaurant and
went back on the street. “So how do we find the University?” Solo asked. “I
don’t see any signs. I wish we had a map.”

“We should ask somebody,” Railan suggested. They searched
for a friendly-looking person, but didn’t have much luck. Everybody seemed
oblivious to everyone else. They turned a corner and Solo squealed with joy when
she saw a horse and carriage sitting at the side of the road. Happy to finally
see a familiar sight, they all rushed to the carriage. There was a sign on the
side of the carriage that said Return to the Past-Take a Relaxing Horse Ride.

Link cleared his throat to get the horseman’s attention.
“Excuse me sir, can you tell us where the University is?”

The man gave a friendly smile. “I sure can, sonny. It’s
on thirteenth street. It’s ten blocks east.” The man looked at the three young
adults. “Kids these days take things too fast. How about a good old-fashioned
carriage ride? I’ll take all three of you to the University for half price, only
twenty-five rupees.”

Link smiled in return. “We’d absolutely love that.” The
driver bowed and opened the door for them. The climbed inside and sat in
surprisingly comfortable seats.

“Thank the goddesses,” Solo said. “They have horses in
this world.”

Link, Solo, and Railan waved at the carriage driver as he
left. They were standing in front of huge wrought-iron gates that said
University of Hyrule at the top. “This place is much bigger than the one from
our world,” Link commented. They walked down the main path and gazed at all of
the huge buildings. “I’d give anything for a map,” Link muttered.

Railan tapped Link’s shoulder and pointed to a
rectangular glass case with a big sign on top that said Map. “I think that might be a map,” Railan said dryly.
Link glared at him and went to look at the map. He looked at the list of
buildings and searched for Archaeology. He found the building on the list and
they went off to find it.

“So what are we doing exactly?” Solo asked.

“We have to find the head of the archaeology department,”
Link replied. “She will be able to help us find the key I need to destroy that
machine.” They walked the rest of the distance in silence, gazing awe-struck at
the variety of architecture. Some of the buildings were giant, square boxes;
while others were bizarre flowing shapes. If they hadn’t been in such a hurry,
they could have stayed there for hours admiring the buildings. They finally
arrived at the archaeology building, which looked like a huge temple. Link liked
this building; it looked familiar.

They walked inside the building and were greeted by a
cheery old lady sitting behind a desk. “Hi there! Is there anything I can do for
you?”

“Yes, please,” Link replied. “I’m looking for the head of
the archaeology department.”

The woman nodded. “Ah yes. That’s Doctor Saria Kiri. Her
office is room 303, and the lecture hall is right next to that. Take that
stairway to the left and go to the third floor. Her office is directly across
from the stairs.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Link replied politely. They walked
down the hall to the stairs.

“It’s kind of weird that she has Saria’s name,” Solo
said.

“It could be a coincidence,” Railan said. “It might be a
popular name.”

“Maybe, but what’s really weird was that they lady said
her name was Saria Kiri,” Link said. “The word Kokiri means ‘forest people’. Kiri means ‘forest’. That’s kind of weird.”

“All I care about is if she can help us,” Link said,
picking up the pace. He suddenly felt a sense of urgency, and he always trusted
his intuition.

The professor was a very young-looking girl, who looked
no older than twelve or thirteen. But that was common for a Kokiri; they all
looked that way. She had waist-length hair that was dyed green. The color wasn’t
a solid green, but a combination of several different shades melded into a
textured pattern. She was standing at the head of a small auditorium, lecturing
to a group of two hundred students. Her fairy was fluttering around the room,
gather the students’ late homework papers.

“Seriously, people. Is it really that hard to turn in
your papers on time?” Her fairy flew over to her desk and deposited the last
paper into a box. The fairy sighed and plopped onto the desk, leaning against
the box to relax. “Now everybody listen up. Your projects are due next week, so
you adrenaline junkies better get started. And remember that tomorrow is the
premiere of the new exhibit about the old Hyrule Castle. You should check it
out, there’s a lot of really great stuff there. Okay, class dismissed, everyone
get out of here.”

There was a loud commotion as the students left the
auditorium. When everyone had left, Saria sat down at her desk and sighed in
relief. “I swear, the kids get worse every year.”

“One of them swatted at me again,” her fairy complained.
“The next time someone does that, I’m going to pull their hair
out.”

Saria laughed. Most people treated her fairy like any
other normal person, but others insisted on seeing her as a pest. Saria was
going to reply, until she saw three people wander into the auditorium. She stood
up to go greet them. “Can I help you guys?” Saria called out to them.

Link suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The voice was
unmistakable. He walked closer to the green-haired girl, trying to make out her
face. The face looked exactly like the Saria he remembered. She looked a couple
years older, and had longer hair, but everything else is the same. “Saria? Is
that really you?” Link asked in disbelief.

“Link!” Saria exclaimed, running to him and hugging him
tightly. “Oh, it’s been so long.”

“How could you possibly be here?” Solo asked.

“I’ve been around for quite some time,” Saria replied.
She gestured for them to follow her. “Come into my office, we can talk there.”

The group followed Saria out of the auditorium and into a
large, lavishly decorated room. There were many pieces of expensive leather
furniture, and hundreds of historical artifacts. Saria sat down in a comfortable
chair and the others found seats of their own. “It’s great to see you again,”
Saria said. “I’ve been waiting for this day for almost forever.”

“I suppose you know more about this than I do,” Link
said.

“Not really. You told me all about what happened to you
on this adventure.”

“So that means I’ll succeed?” Link asked.

Saria smiled wryly. “You always succeed. Actually, you
gave me specific instructions not to tell you what you told me.” Link gave her a
blank stare. Saria chuckled. “Okay, when you got back into your normal time, you
told me about this adventure. Then you said you met me in the future, and that I
was going to help you. But you made it very clear that you couldn’t tell me what
I had to do, that only the you right now could. It has something to do with
preserving the timeline. You told me to tell you that when you get back, you can
tell me everything except what I would have to do for
you.”

All three of them stared at her, dumbfounded. “My brain
hurts,” Railan moaned.

“I’m not quite sure if I understand...” Link said.

Saria sighed. “All right. I don’t know what I have to do.
When you get home, you can tell me this story, except for what you want me to do
right now.”

Link nodded. “Oh, okay, I get it.”

Saria gave a nervous laugh. “You know, I never thought
that any of this would actually happen. I thought I would live my life in the
Kokiri Forest, happily enjoying a carefree existence. It’s amazing how things
change.”

Link frowned. The tone of her voice suggested she had
been through some bad times. “I hope nothing bad happened to you. But I guess a
lot of things can happen in…. Goddesses, how many years has it been? I don’t
even know how far we’ve traveled.”

“A little over two thousand years,” Saria said
matter-of-factly.

Railan’s eyes widened. “We went two thousand years into the future?” He mulled over that
fact for a minute, until another thought hit him. “Wait...that means you are two thousand years old, right?”

Saria nodded. “Yes, it’s a nice, ripe old age. Most
people wouldn’t believe me though. It’s amazing to be living through history.
That’s why I became an archaeologist; since I lived through so much, I could
study so much more. A lot of things have happened over the years. For a while, I
was the only Kokiri left.”

Link’s face saddened. “Oh no...they didn’t die, did
they?”

Saria quickly shook her head and calmed him. “No, no.
It’s not like that. A hundred years or so after your time, a great flood
engulfed Hyrule. The Kokiri were forced to change physical form and relocate.
They adopted a more plant-like form in order to survive in their new world. Some
Kokiri changed into fairies, and others went back to the spiritual realm. I told
the Great Deku Tree that I wanted to remain in my human form. I was allowed to,
but I had to stay hidden.

“I traveled the world for centuries; enjoying all of the
cultures and peoples. After a few centuries, Hyrule was returned to its past
glory. Ganondorf periodically resurfaced to cause trouble, but a hero like you
always appeared to fight him. After a long time, the world began to change.
Amazing new technologies were invented and science advanced at a fantastic pace.
It was about five hundred years ago when the Kokiri returned to human form, and
they were instrumental in creating a fantastic new world. I’m sure you’ve seen
some of the awesome machines that have been invented, and are now a part of
everyday life. But you haven’t seen the half of it. Medicine is so far ahead of
what you’re used to that you would think it’s magic. People don’t die of
infections anymore, women rarely die in childbirth, and people live much longer
than the old days.”

“It must’ve been amazing to live through that,” Solo
said.

“How come you look older now?” Link asked.

“After the Kokiri took on human form again, the Great
Deku Tree let us choose to remain young, or to age. I chose to grow a few years
in human terms, but not to adulthood. I wanted to be a little taller. There’s
fifty thousand Kokiri now, and most of us are still like children.”

“I wish we had time to explore this new world,” Link said
with a sigh. “But we have more important things to do. You need to help us find
some kind of key. My father told me that it was in a box somewhere in the
museum, in storage or something.”

Saria concentrated and thought for a moment. “Hmm...I’ve
been through so many artifacts, that I wouldn’t know where to begin. But I guess
there’s only one way to find out.” She stood up and motioned for the others to
follow. “I’ll take you to the museum, and we’ll check everything there. It’s
only a short walk.”

It only took about ten minutes to walk to the museum.
When they entered, Railan, Link, and Solo stared in shock at the absolutely
monstrous skeletons on display. “Good goddesses!” Railan exclaimed. “What are
those things?” He pointed at a skeleton that was over two stories tall, and had
long razor-sharp teeth. “If monsters like this live in the future, I’m not
looking forward to it.”

Saria chuckled. “Oh, no. Don’t worry about those. Those
creatures existed long ago, before there were even people. Come on, I’ll take
you to the storeroom.” They followed Saria to a door that opened to a staircase.
They went down the stairs and opened the door to a room of gargantuan
proportions. The ceiling was about twenty feet high, and the room was arranged
with neat rows of shelves that went all the way to the top.

Link’s face fell. “We have to search all of this?” he asked. “We’ll be here for years!”

Link scratched his head. “Well, this key is from an
ancient time machine that was supposedly built millions of years ago. Do you
have boxes of stuff that old?”

“That stuff might not be classifiable. We have an area
for miscellaneous stuff that doesn’t fall into any category. We should look
there first.” Saria led them to a far corner of the warehouse. Saria pointed to
shelves of stuff that wasn’t organized or classified. “Dig through this stuff
here. But please be careful and don’t break anything.
Some of this stuff might still be important.”

“Look for something metal, that in any was resembles a
key,” Link told everyone. They each took a box and looked through it. Link
couldn’t believe some of the stuff he found in the box. There were shards of
pottery, buttons from shirts, and other things he couldn’t identify. “This is
all junk.”

Saria seemed to be mildly offended by that comment. “Hey,
one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Link pulled a familiar object out of the box and showed
it to Saria. “Is a knitting needle really treasure?” he asked sarcastically.
Saria rolled her eyes and gestured for him to get back to work.

Everybody searched through box after box of junk.
Everyone’s attention was piqued when Railan yelped in surprise. They quickly
looked over to him to see what he’d found. “Hey, look!” He held up a rubbery toy
with hundreds of rubber tendrils that made it look like an urchin. It was
attached to an elastic string and Railan twirled and bounced it.

Everyone else’s shoulders slumped and they went back to
work. “What?” Saria said, annoyed. “Who put that in there? That’s just a stupid
toy, that shouldn’t be in here.”

They searched for several hours more, but came across
nothing that even resembled a key. But Solo finally stumbled onto something.
“Hey, what’s this thing?” Solo asked, holding up a shiny metal object. It was
cylinder attached to a square handle with dozens of protrusions sticking out of
it. “It kind of looks like a key.” She handed it to Link and he examined it
closely.

“I think this might be it,” he said. Something inside him
told him that this little artifact was what he needed. He had to trust his
intuition.

Saria took the key from Link and examined it. “I remember
this,” she said. “It was found in a dig about ten years ago, and no one knew
what it was. We did tests on it, and couldn’t even determine what it was made
of.” She handed the key back to Link. “So this belongs to a million-year-old
time machine?” Link nodded. “That’s amazing. The oldest records of civilization
we’ve found were fifteen thousands years old at most. But millions? We didn’t think that people even existed back
then. We’ve never found any evidence of anything that old. You think there would
be something left-some artifacts or something. Whoever these people were, they
disappeared without a trace.”

“Now that we have this key, I don’t know what to do
next,” Link said.

Saria was about to speak when a beeping noise came from
her pocket. She pulled out at thin, rectangular object and put it to her ear.
“Hello?” She said. “Orlin? What can I help you with?” Saria’s eyes wandered as
she listened to the voice on the other end. The others gave her strange looks
and she gestured for them to be quiet. “Yes, you’re right. They did come here.”
Another pause. “No, they haven’t caused any trouble. They needed to find an
artifact. You know all of this was destined to happen. I told the Council this
when they first built the machine.” She listened again and sighed. “I wouldn’t
worry about contamination of the timeline. But I guess that’s up to the Council
to decide. I’ll bring them back right away.” Saria put the object back into her
pocket and saw the confused looks on everyone’s faces.

“What was that?” Link asked.

“It’s one of the wonderful technologies I told you about.
It’s a telephone. It enables you to talk to anyone anywhere.”

“Wow,” Link said simply. “I wish I had one of those.”

Saria sighed. “Well, I’m sorry to say this, but I have to
take you back to the time machine. They’ve been looking for you.”

Link nodded. “I understand. I figured we’d have to go
back there. But how did they know to talk to you?”

“I was on the team that helped build the machine. I was
their main historian, and they still contact me when they need information on
certain past periods. Now that we’ve found what we need, we can proceed with the
next part of the mission.” Link wondered how much she knew about what he had to
do, but decided not to ask. “We can take my car to the headquarters, come
on.”

Saria led them out of the museum, and down the winding
sidewalks of the campus. They stopped at a huge plot of land filled with dozens
of the glass and metal machines that they’d seen zooming down the streets
before. Saria led them to a forest green colored machine with four doors.
Railan, Solo, and Link stopped, hesitant to step into the machine.

“I don’t really want to go into one of those things,”
Link said warily.

“They go so fast,” Railan said
in amazement.

Saria forgot that they’d never seen an automobile before.
“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” she insisted. “They only use horses now for racing and
old-fashioned rides. These automobiles go much faster, and if you learn how to
use them, they’re very safe.” Saria opened the front passenger door for Link,
then opened the back door for Solo and Railan. She showed everyone the seatbelts
and made sure they were securely fastened before she got into the driver’s seat.
The others were shaking nervously. “Calm down, everything will be fine.” The
engine purred to life and Saria pulled out of the parking spot.

Link looked curiously around the interior, wondering what
all the knobs and switches did. Although they were spooked by the vehicle’s
speed, they eventually calmed down when they realized Saria wasn’t going to get
them killed. “How does this thing work?” Link asked curiously. “How can this
thing move if nothing’s pulling or pushing it?”

“It’s a little complicated to explain,” Saria replied.
“There are a lot of mechanical things that go on inside to make everything
move. Basically, it’s self-propelled. It uses something called an engine. You
put a fuel in it-something similar to lamp oil-and the engine burns it. The
burning process creates energy that ends up turning the wheels. I really can’t
explain more without teaching you hundreds of years worth of science.”

Link seemed satisfied with the answer. He didn’t expect
to understand how all this future technology worked. He settled back in his seat
and looked out the window at the amazing sights of the city. Everything here was
so fast. He couldn’t understand why people could
possibly need everything so fast. But perhaps everyone were used to it.

Saria stopped the vehicle in front of one of the many
impossibly tall buildings. The second the car stopped, Railan flung the door
opened and rushed outside. He fell to his knees on the sidewalk and raised his
hands into the air. “Praise the goddesses! Solid ground!” He kissed the ground a
couple of times before standing back up.

Solo looked a little pale, but not too shaken. “I don’t
think I want to ride in that again,” Solo said.

“Come this way,” Saria said, leading everyone into the
building. Saria smiled at a perky young woman sitting behind the reception desk.
“Hi, Sati.”

Saria nodded and walked through the main entryway and
down one of the many hallways. She stopped at what looked like a white door with
no knob. Next to the door was a keyhole and small buttons with numbers on them.
Saria inserted the key and turned it, causing the buttons to light up. She
punched in a code and turned the key back to its original position. The was a ding sound and the doors slid sideways to reveal a
small, box-shaped room. “Step inside,” Saria said. Link, Solo, and Railan
nervously entered, wondering what this room was for. Saria stepped inside and
the doors closed behind her. She pushed a button and there was the sudden jolt
of movement. “Don’t worry. This is an elevator. This little room is attached to
cables and pulleys pull it up or down a shaft. It’s used to get to different
floors of the building.”

The motion stopped and the three felt their stomachs
sink. “Ugh,” Solo moaned, looking like she was ready to vomit. The doors opened
and they left. The room the entered was quite small and made of dull, gray
concrete. At the opposite side of the room were another set of elevator doors
and a regular door.

“This is another elevator. It’ll take us very deep
underground. Take a deep breath and relax.” She inserted a key and punched the
code like before. Then she leaned forward and a light flashed on her eyes.
Therewas a ding and the
doors opened to another box-shaped room that was twice as big as the first one.
They stepped inside and the doors closed. Their stomachs turned when the
elevator moved again and Solo groaned. “We’re almost done.”

When the elevator stopped, Link, Railan, and Solo hurried
out of it. They were in a long, white hallways with a man sitting behind a desk.
“Welcome back, Professor,” the man said. “Please identify yourself to the
scanner.” Saria put her hand on a glass plate until it beeped. “Thank you. Are
these three the escapees?”

Saria nodded. “Yes. I’ve brought them back.” A door
opened and the man waved them through. Orlin was waiting on the other side.

“You’re very clever, I have to admit that,” Orlin said.
“I suppose it was my fault for putting you in a non-secure area. But that’s not
important right now. I’ll have someone take your friend and sister to their
rooms; you and Saria need to come with me. The Council wants to speak to
you.”

Solo and Railan gave Link nervous looks. “Don’t worry,”
Link said. “Stay put and I’ll be back soon.” They nodded and a couple guards led
them away.

“Follow me,” Orlin said, motioning for Link and Saria to
follow.

Chapter 5

“The Council will see you now,” said
the secretary, pointing to the door.

“Go in, I have to stay behind,” Orlin
said. Link and Saria entered the Council chambers and saw seven people sitting
behind a long table.

“Saria, it’s good to see you again,”
said the councilor in the center. “And Link, it’s a pleasure to meet you
finally. Let me introduce myself and the others. My name is Dalek. And starting
on the left there are Jolinar, Selmak, Jaden, Damen, Kati, and Tera. We
currently act as the Temporal Council. We are responsible for monitoring the
timeline and correcting changes that criminals have caused. And Koros has by
far caused the most trouble. It hasn’t affected us yet, but we don’t have much
time left.”

“That’s correct. We’ve kept a low
profile for generations, silently protecting the power of the Triforce. But
about forty years ago, Jolinar had a vision. In her vision, she saw a bleak and
horrible world, in which all the peoples of the world were enslaved and
tortured. At the center of this world was Ganondorf, ruling on a throne of
skulls.”

“I didn’t know what to think of it at
first,” said Jolinar, continuing the story. “We knew that Ganondorf would
resurface from time to time, but that his power would be limited. A hero like
you always emerges to vanquish him; it’s a never-ending cycle. But this was far
worse. We believed at first that he may have somehow discovered the true
Triforce.”

Dalek spoke again, “But it was worse
than that. I believe someone told you about ascension, right? And about how
Koros was trying to enable Ganondorf to seek ascension again?”

Link nodded. “Yes, my father appeared
to me and told me this.”

“So you are aware of the problems
that he could cause. The true purpose of the Triforce was two-fold. It was
designed to imprison the most evil of gods, Daimanius. You were destined to
destroy him. But the other purpose is to grant the powers of ascension. But by
hiding the Triforce, we hid the secret of ascension from the people. The first
Guardians were the first of our modern races to ascend. Although the other
Ascendants frown on it, they help people to ascend by their own power, without
the Triforce.

“But the Triforce is not the object
of interest here. The time machine is what matters. Never before has a piece of
man-made technology been used to affect the universe on a grand, spiritual
scale. I want you to look at something.” Dalek left the big table and went to a
cabinet at the back of the room. He returned with two large books, and showed
them to Link. “Do these look familiar at all?”

“These are those books from the time
machine,” Link said. “I brought them back with me, hoping I could learn
something from them. But they vanished without a trace.”

“The books were in the wrong time.
But inanimate objects take longer to snap back to their original time. The
books appeared in a random place. After Jolinar had her vision, we checked the
museums for clues. These books were sitting in boxes in the warehouse that
Saria showed you. Someone had discovered them a long time ago, and since no one
could read them, they were put away and forgotten about. We essentially
re-discovered them. They turned out to be designs for a time machine. We used
the books to build our own machine. The secret couldn’t be kept forever, and a
few bad people tried to change history. We officially started an agency to
police history.”

“I knew that you would appear
sometime in the future,” Saria said. “The story you told me made me stay on
alert. But I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, because you purposely
kept your story vague.”

“Yes, that is why when you return,
you mustn’t tell the important details to anyone,” Dalek warned him. “The basic
story of these events won’t change anything, but you can’t be specific about
the secret things.”

“So what is it I have to do?” Link
asked. “All I know is that I have to destroy the ancient time machine.”

“Yes, and the key you found is one of
the things you need,” Dalek said. “But it has to be activated far in the past,
just before it is abandoned. The key you found is one of three that are needed
to destroy the machine. The first one was stolen before the self-destruct could
be activated; that is the key you have right now. Ganondorf himself sent the
key far into the future to hide it. The other keys will still exist in the past
with the machine.”

“Who built this thing?” Link asked.

“They are an ancient race that we
call the Progenitors. They were an extremely advanced race that vanished in a
great catastrophe about two million years ago. The time machine was the only
thing that survived, because it has special forces that protect it. Ganondorf
was originally a member of that race, and so was Koros. You must go back and
fight them. Once you do that, you must take the key and activate the
self-destruct.”

“How do I destroy it?”

Dalek pointed to the screen on the
wall, and an image of a long, cylindrical object appeared. “This is the
self-destruct device. It’s basically a huge bomb with power far greater than
anything you could ever imagine.”

“I’ll go back, and I’ll destroy it,”
Link said firmly.

“You cannot do it alone,” Dalek said.
“The bomb needs three people to activate it. Your friends will have to help
you.”

“No. I’m not going to risk their
lives like that.”

“You must,” Saria said. “If you
don’t, then everyone you know will die anyways. There is no other choice. Not
only will you save your own life, but you save the past, a future past. The
whole of history is in your hands.”

“We’ll give you a tracker so you can
come back,” added Jolinar. “Once you activate the self-destruct, we will use
the tracker to return you to your own time.”

“Tell me everything I need to know,”
Link said, steeling himself for what was to come.

“Link sure is taking his sweet time,”
Solo complained. They were sitting on couches in their quarters, idly chatting
the hours away.

“I’m sure it’s really important,”
Railan said.

“Link gets to do all the interesting
stuff, I just get stuck in the middle.”

“I think I’ve had enough excitement
to last a lifetime. I’d much rather live in my time than here. Everything’s way
too fast and complicated.”

“I agree,” Solo said. “But if I could
bring something back, it would definitely be toilet paper. It’s better than
silk, I swear.”

“I don’t know. I’d much rather have
the bathtub with the magic hot water. That would be much nicer. It’d be so much
better than heating a pot of water on the stove and dumping it in the tub.”

“Yeah, it is. There’s nothing more
relaxing than soaking in the hot spring. I go there all the time.” Railan’s
eyes wandered and he appeared to be in a daydream. “You’re imagining me naked,
aren’t you?”

Railan’s face turned red and he felt
mortified. “What...I...no, that’s not what I was thinking. Not that you
wouldn’t look good naked but....” He realized what he’d said and felt even more
embarrassed. “No! Not that...you’re my friend’s sister, and my boss’s friend,
so that’s kind of like you being my sister, and...”

“Calm down, calm down,” Solo said,
stifling her laughter. “I was just joking. I didn’t mean for you to take that
seriously.”

Railan calmed down a little. “Sorry.
It wouldn’t seem right to think of you that way. Besides, Link said you already
had a boyfriend.”

Railan looked confused and tried to
figure out what she meant. Then he finally got it and his eyes went wide.
“Oh...So you like another girl...that way. I see.” His cheeks tinged
pink a little. “That’s interesting. I’ve never met a girl that was like that
before.”

Solo stared at the floor, worried
about what he might think. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you or anything.
It’s not something that most people talk about. I’m sure Malon would want me
talking about us...” Railan’s jaw dropped in shock and Solo covered her mouth,
realizing that she’d said that aloud.

“Wow! You and Malon?” He got lost in
thought for a moment, then nodded his head. “I guess I can see that. You two
seem to get along really well.”

“So, that doesn’t bother you?”

He shook his head. “No. Besides, you
would be off limits because you’re my friend’s sister, and Malon would be off
limits because she’s my boss. So even if I was interested in you, my honor
wouldn’t let me pursue it. Not that I wouldn’t be interested in either of you,
because you’re both really pretty and nice...so...” He trailed off when Solo
giggled. “Sorry, just tell me to shut up if I do that.”

“No, it’s kind of cute. Link does
that a lot. You just haven’t seen it yet.”

As if on cue, the door to their
quarters opened and Link and Saria entered. They both went to one of the chairs
and sat down. “We’ll be going home soon,” Link said. Railan and Solo breathed
sighs of relief. “Don’t get all excited yet. We have work to do. I’m going to
have to fight again.”

“No, I’ll do it,” Link said
adamantly. “I’m used to working alone. You two need to come with me because
I’ll need three people to turn on the bomb that’ll destroy the time machine.
But I’ll do the fighting, you two can stay safe till it’s over.”

Solo looked determined. “I’m not
going to let you do this alone when I’m perfectly capable of helping.”

“I know how to fight a little,”
Railan said. “If I have to, I’ll just hit somebody with a rock.”

“Link, I don’t think you can convince
them not to help,” Saria said in her motherly tone. “If the situation was
reversed, you’d do the same thing.”

Link slumped his shoulders and
sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. But if they got hurt, I’d never forgive myself.
And I’ve only known Railan for a few days; how can I possibly ask him to risk
his life for something I have to do?”

“I’ll do it,” Railan said firmly.
“Every instinct tells me you’re a good and honorable person, and I’ll be damned
if I’m not going to do the good and honorable thing with you. You told me that
you completed a mission for the princess, and that was the minute you met her.
How is this any different? I trust you.”

“Okay. We can work together. I’ll
tell you everything that I know.”

Link was lying on his bed, staring at
the ceiling. Sleep wouldn’t come for him, but he wasn’t surprised. Whenever
he’d had to risk his life for some mission he would always rush right into it.
Sitting around and mulling over it the night before wasn’t something he was
used to. Now all the pessimistic and negative thoughts flew through his head.
He imagined every possible way he and his friends could fail, and that wasn’t
doing much for his confidence.

“I’m here for you,” said his father’s
now familiar voice. Link turned to look at him. “I know it sounds impossible,
but it’s not. You can succeed.”

“I know,” Link said with a sigh. “But
I don’t want Solo and Railan to get involved in this. It’s not fair that they
have to fight along with me.”

“Who said it was fair for you to
fight alone?” Link could see the logic in that. “I’ll be there watching you the
whole time. I don’t know if I’ll be able to help directly, but I’ll try. I
believe in you, and I know you can do it. But I said I would help if I had to.
I would give up ascension and spend eternity in torture to save you. I gave my
life for you and your sister once already, doing it again would be easy.”

“I’ve defeated Ganondorf once before,
I can do it again.”

“He’s merely a man in that timeline.
That was long before he attempted ascension. He didn’t have the knowledge, nor
the power to fight you the way he did in your time. It will be a fight between
two men, nothing more.”

Link felt more confident on hearing
that. “I can defeat him.”

“Remember, you also have another
distinct advantage: foresight. You know what’s going to happen in his future;
he doesn’t. All he knows then is that he can attain great power by tampering
with the time machine.”

“Where would he get that idea?”

“From the great Evil One,” his father
replied seriously. “The most evil of all forces. You remember him, don’t you?
Daimanius? You helped destroy him. He exists then. His goal then was to destroy
life, and he knew he could do that if he tempted Ganondorf. He was tempted by
the promise of power, so he followed Daimanius’s instructions.”

“If I go back, and Daimanius is
there, he’ll know. I can’t fight him again.”

“You won’t have to,” his father
assured him. “He’ll be gone somewhere else causing trouble. He won’t see you as
a threat. He could only tell the future if his future self existed to tell him.
But since you destroyed him, he won’t know. All you have to do is kill
Ganondorf and Koros and the future will be safe.” Link hung his head. “I know
that taking another man’s life is a hard thing to do, but sometimes it’s
necessary. He is no more a man in the past than he was when you fought him.”

“I’ll do what I have to do,” Link
said.

“I’ll be there for you,” his father
said with a smile, then vanished.

Link, Solo, and Railan stood at the
base of the ramp that led to the huge glass chamber of the time machine. The
seven members of the Council were in front of them, finishing their final
briefing. “I wish all of you the greatest luck,” said Dalek. “The past,
present, and future depend on you.”

“Will these weapons be enough?” Link
asked. All three of them had been given swords, several daggers, and other
small weapons.

“Yes,” replied Dalek. “They won’t
have the supernatural powers you’re used to fighting.”

Link looked sternly at Railan and
Solo. “You both stay in a safe place and don’t come out unless I need your
help.” They both rolled their eyes and nodded. He looked back at the
councilors. “Is there anything else we need to know?”

“Have faith in the goddesses, they will
protect you.”

“When you have completed your
mission, activate your trackers and we will send you back to your own time,”
said Councilor Jolinar.

Dalek reached into his pocket and
pulled out three vials of liquid, giving one each to Link and company. “These
are the special potions we told you about. Time travel for the inexperienced
can be very disorienting. This will prevent you from getting sick. They will
also increase your strength and stamina, reaction time, and overall energy.
You’ll all feel incredible.”

“Well, bottoms up I guess,” said
Link. They all swallowed the potions and gagged at the horribly bitter taste.
“Are we ready?” Railan and Solo nodded.

“Godspeed, and good luck,” said Dalek
as they walked up the ramp. “Our prayers are with you.”

They stood at the center of the
machine platform and the door closed behind them. “This is it,” Link said,
trying to sound confident.

“Likewise,” Link said, putting his
hand on Railan’s shoulder. “Everything will be fine. I always succeed.”

The hum from the machine turned into
a deafening roar, and the light grew ever brighter. After taking one last
breath, the three vanished in a flash of light.

“What the hell are we going to do
after we do your stupid plan?” asked Koros angrily. She was trying to get the
attention of Ganondorf, who was hunched over the time machine control panel,
fiddling with various settings.

“Shut up, woman,” he growled. “I know
what I’m doing.”

“So sending one of the self-destruct
keys into the future will give us unbelievable powers, huh? I think all the
radiation has finally rotted your brain.”

Ganondorf turned around angrily and
glared at his partner. “Your incessant rambling will get us nowhere. I know
what I’m doing. This is just one part of a grand plan. The machine will be
protected from the impact, and sending the key to the future will prevent
anyone from activating the self-destruct.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re
the only ones left on the whole planet. Who is going to activate the
self-destruct?”

Ganondorf pounded his fist on the
console, barely avoiding missing the controls. “Because we might need it. I
know when and where I’m going to send it. No one will ever find it.”

“And where the hell are we going to
go? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an asteroid a tenth the mass of the
planet hurtling towards us. Unless you have a shuttle stored away somewhere,
we’re going to fry.”

“We won’t need a shuttle or
anything,” Ganondorf said confidently. “We’re going to ascend to a higher plane
of existence. When the world is reborn, we can come back and take over.”

“Is that what all this spiritual crap
is that you’ve been talking about? And what makes you think anyone will even
return to this place afterwards?”

“Quit your whining. If they don’t
return, we can go to another planet. That doesn’t matter. Now make yourself
useful and make sure the core is properly calibrated.” Koros grumbled and left.
Sometimes he wondered why he stuck with that woman. He supposed it was love, or
maybe love for her body. He could deal with her antics as long as she remained
loyal. With her annoying presence gone, he could go back to work.

Link, Solo, and Railan opened their
eyes to take in their new surroundings. They expected to see the cavernous
chamber from before, but instead they were in a tiny, dark room full of boxes.
“This must be some kind of storeroom or something,” Solo said.

“It would make sense to send us
somewhere we can hide,” said Link. After his eyes adjusted to the darkness,
Link went to the door and opened it a crack. He saw a long hallway lined with
doors, pipes, ladders, and stairways. “There’s no one out there. It’s safe for
now. Let’s go.” They left the room and slowly crept down the hall, alert for
any signs of trouble. Link had his sword at the ready, enjoying the familiar
weight of the blade in his hand. He felt confident, like he could accomplish
anything.

There was a continuous hum permeating
the general background noise of the place. The potions they’d taken were
incredible. Link could hear drops of water falling from pipes hundreds of feet
away, and his vision had never been so clear and focused. At the end of the
hall was a T-shaped intersection. To the left was another seemingly endless
hall of pipes, and to the right was a spiral staircase. Link decided to take
the stairs. He gestured for Solo and Railan to remain quiet.

At the top of the staircase was a
hatch on the ceiling. He pushed it up and winced when it squeaked. It sounded
almost deafening to him, but he had to remember that his hearing was more
sensitive now. He peeked through the crack and looked out. His heart rate
increased when he saw the familiar cavernous room of the time machine. About a
hundred yards away was the center platform of the machine, with a man busily rearranging
control chips and punching buttons. No one else was in sight.

Link opened the hatch fully and waved
his hand for Railan and Solo to follow. When they were out, Link quietly closed
the hatch. Fate was on their side because they were inside a cluster of desks
and crates. Link could barely believe how many boxes were lying everywhere. It
seemed as if everyone was planning on moving, but suddenly left without a
trace. Something was strange about the place; some kind of catastrophe was
coming. Link could feel it in his bones. Their little alcove was fairly
well-hidden, and if they remained quiet, no one would notice them.

Link pointed to the machine control
panel, where Ganondorf was working. The man slightly resembled the Ganondorf he
remembered, but not quite as hideously ugly. “That’s him,” Link whispered.

“Where’s the woman?” asked Railan.

Link searched the room carefully,
looking for any sign of another’s presence. Off in the distance he could see
someone walking toward Ganondorf. He squinted and his blood boiled when he
recognized it as Koros. “There she is,” Link whispered. Koros stopped next to
Ganondorf and talked to him. Link look backed at Solo and Railan. “I’ll go
sneak up on them. Both of you stay here. If it looks like I need help, then come.
Otherwise don’t move.”

“Good luck,” said Solo, kissing him
on the cheek before he left.

Link left the safety of his hiding
place and stealthily walked towards Ganondorf and Koros. The general clutter of
the chamber was a blessing; it gave him plenty of camouflage as he approached.
He could feel his desire for revenge grow as he went ever closer. He wanted to
make Ganondorf pay for the crimes he’d committed, and the ones he was going to
commit. He wanted to punish Koros for trying to kill him, and for mass
murdering the people of Hyrule in the alternate future. He smiled when he saw
Ganondorf hold up two of the self-destruct keys.

Link ducked under a desk that was
fairly close to the main control panel. He concentrated on listening. “I sent
the key to a safe place,” said Ganondorf. “No one will ever be able to find it,
except us.”

“So what’s next?” asked Koros.

“Now we use the machine to go
someplace else. We can pool our knowledge and wait till the time is right for
use to ascend. Then we can rule the universe together.”

Link cringed when the two started
kissing. But they were distracted, and he might not get another chance like
this. He sprinted toward them as silently as possible until he was within arm’s
reach. Ganondorf and Koros were so caught up in the moment that they never even
noticed Link’s presence.

Link stuck the sword in Ganondorf’s
back, just enough to barely pierce the skin. He stiffened and turned around to
glare at Link angrily. “Who the hell are you?”

Link backed off a few paces and stood
in a battle ready stance. As much as he hated Ganondorf, he wasn’t going to
stab a man in the back. “You’re not going anywhere,” Link said defiantly.

Ganondorf threw his head back and
cackled. Link’s skin tingled on hearing the familiar laugh. “That’s nice little
boy, but I’m going to have to kill you.” He pulled out a pistol and aimed it
directly between Link’s eyes. Ganondorf pulled the trigger, only to hear a click.
He growled and pulled the trigger repeatedly. Click. Click. Click.

Link took his advantage and lunged
towards Ganondorf, but he dodged to the side and Link landed hard on the
ground. “How do I deactivate the security system?” Ganondorf demanded.

“You can’t,” Koros replied. She dug
around the console and found a large pry bar laying near an open panel. She
picked it up and tossed it to Ganondorf. He caught it just in time to block a
downward swipe from Link’s sword. Link pushed and Ganondorf resisted. Koros
sneaked up behind Link, but he heard her coming and jumped to the side before
she could strike him. Koros ended up plowing into Ganondorf and knocking him
down.

Link pulled one of the daggers from
his belt and threw it at Ganondorf, just barely missing him. He stood at the
ready, looking for any opportunity to attack Ganondorf. “Get up and kill the
brat!” Koros growled. She was angry enough to charge Link suddenly. Link saw
her coming and stepped out of the way, but he didn’t see the knife she’d picked
up from Link’s attack. Link used his sword to block, but she still managed to
cut a gash in his side. Link winced and backed off.

While Link’s back was turned,
Ganondorf leapt onto him and tackled him to the ground. The sword flew out of
Link’s hand and slid across the floor. Ganondorf grabbed Link’s hair and
slammed his face against the ground. Link felt a surge of adrenaline and pushed
with all his might, springing off the ground and sending Ganondorf back several
feet. He laughed and grinned evilly as his stood up. “You have no idea who
you’re dealing with you little pest.”

Ganondorf resisted his urge to smile
when he saw Koros approach Link from behind, sword in hand. She ran toward him,
ready to run him through. Link pulled his second dagger and twirled around to
face Koros. He used his knife to deflect the sword. This took Koros by
surprise; she’d expected Link to be distracted by Ganondorf. Link kicked
Koros’s feet out from under her and she crashed to the ground. He stepped on
the back of her head and bent over to retrieve his sword.

Ganondorf used Link’s momentary
distraction to swing the crowbar at his back. Link cried out in pain and
crumpled to the floor. He rolled over and used his sword to block a blow to his
face. Ganondorf kept swinging at Link and Link kept blocking. Then suddenly a
loud metallic crack came from Link’s sword as the much heavier crowbar
shattered the blade. “Shit,” Link muttered. Ganondorf grinned and brought the
crowbar down toward Link’s face. Link moved his head to the side and could feel
the wind from the crowbar as it swung past and slammed into the floor.

After Link moved his head to the
side, Ganondorf used his left fist to punch Link in the jaw. Koros joined in
the fight and started kicking Link in the side. Link cried out in pain and
wasn’t able to move out of the way. Ganondorf was about to swing his final blow
to Link’s face when a sword came out of nowhere and nearly chopped off his arm.
Solo took on Ganondorf and fought him fiercely. Link tried to stand up but collapsed
again. Koros tried to stab him but was tackled to the ground by a howling
Railan. He banged her head against the floor several times until she stopped
struggling. He stood up and kicked her a couple times to make sure she stayed
down.

Their fist foe defeated, Link and
Railan focused on Ganondorf. Solo was battling with ferocity Link had never
seen from his sister. Link picked up his sword and charged Ganondorf. As Solo
tripped and fell, Link arrived just in time to block Ganondorf’s crowbar. The man’s
right arm was hanging by a thread and he looked ready to collapse. Railan came
up from behind and bashed Ganondorf on the back of the head with the hilt of
his sword. His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor.

Railan stood over Ganondorf and
nudged him in the side. “Did I kill him?” Railan asked Link.

Link leaned over and checked out his
fallen enemy. His pulse was erratic and his breaths were shallow. “No, but
he’ll be dead soon.” Link went over to Koros’s still form and examined her. “She’d
dead.”

Railan hung his head in shame, a few
tears rolling down his cheeks. “I didn’t want to kill anyone. I just wanted to
help you.”

Solo put her hand on his shoulder.
“It was justified,” she said. “I’ve done it, and Link’s done it. Sometimes you
have no choice. It’s never easy.”

Ganondorf twitched and gurgled a
little, but didn’t move. “I don’t think we have to worry about him,” Link said.
He dug around in Ganondorf’s pocket and retrieved the other two self-destruct
keys. “Now we finish our mission.” Link walked to the edge of the time machine
platform and looked for a red, striped circle on the floor. After walking
halfway around the platform, he found the symbol. Link pulled a handle next to
the sign and a hatch popped open, revealing a ladder. “Let’s go.”

Link climbed down first, followed by
Solo, then Railan. The room was dimly lit, and very quiet. At the center of the
room was a black, cylindrical object laying on its side. It looked to be about
thirty feet long and five feet in diameter. The cylinder was almost completely
unadorned, save for a few signs in a foreign language. In front of the cylinder
were three waist-high pedestals with keyholes, spaced twelve feet apart. “I
take it this is the bomb,” Railan said.

“Yes,” Link replied. “We insert the
keys into those pedestals and turn them at the exact same time. That activates
the bomb. Then we use our tracker to go home.” Link handed Railan and Solo each
a key. “I’ll take the center one, and you take the other two.” Link stood at
the center pedestal, Solo to the right, and Railan to the left. “Put the key in
the slot.” They inserted the keys. “When I say ‘go’, turn the keys to the
right. We all have to do it at the same time. Are you ready?” Solo and Railan
nodded. “Okay. Three...two...one…go!” They turned the keys simultaneously.

The moment the keys turned, there was
a loud click. Some lights flashed on the bomb and the constant humming of the
background noise went silent. A loud klaxon sounded and a voice came from
everywhere, “Temporal core deactivated.” All three of them jumped when
an ear-splitting bell rang for five seconds. “Attention all personnel: there
are now five minutes to self-destruct.”

“I guess that’s it,” Link said. He
pulled out the tracking device the people from the future gave him and looked
at the blinking blue light. “It’s time to go home.” Before he could touch the
button, the tracker vanished into thin air. Link was mystified. “What?” He
looked at the others frantically. “Try the spares.” Solo and Railan took out
their trackers, and they too vanished into thin air.

“What do we do?” Solo asked
frantically.

“I don’t know! They said to use the
trackers after we turned on the bomb. How can we use them if they disappeared?”

“Can we use the time machine here?”
Railan asked.

“No,” Link replied. “The time machine
is deactivated when we turn the keys.”

“Then let’s turn off the keys,” Solo
suggested. She tried to turn her key, but it wouldn’t budge.

“There are now four minutes to
self-destruct.”

“It’s stuck!” she cried.

“Okay, we’ll turn them together, just
like before, only turn it the other way. Three, two, one, go!” They all tried
to turn the keys, but none of them moved. “We’re screwed.”

Railan sighed and slumped to the
floor, leaning against the base of the bomb. “Maybe we weren’t supposed to live
through this,” he said. Link and Solo both sat on the floor next to Railan.

“There are now three minutes to
self-destruct.”

“Who knows, maybe they’ll save us at
the last second,” said Solo.

Link sighed. “I wish there was
something I could do. But even if we die, it’s still for the greater good. Too
bad no one will remember our sacrifice.” Link pulled Solo to him and hugged
her. He was surprised that none of them were overly emotional in the face of
certain death.

“Shouldn’t we be sad or something?”
Railan said sarcastically.

“Maybe it’s the potion they gave us,”
Link said.

“There are now two minutes to
self-destruct.”

Solo put her head on Link’s shoulder.
“You’ve been a good and kind brother, I just want you to know that. I love you
so much.”

“I love you too. You’re everything I
wished for in a sister. I only wish we had more time together. I was always
proud of you. Thanks for saving me. Thanks for everything.”

“There is now one minute to
self-destruct.”

Link looked over at Railan with a sad
expression. “I’m sorry, Railan. I never meant to get you involved in this. If
I’d known I’d end up killing you, I would’ve left you alone.”

Railan smiled at him. “Don’t say
that. These have been the most exciting few days of my life. We all have to go
sometime, so I guess this is my time.”

“There are now thirty seconds to
self destruct.”

“It’s been an honor to meet you,”
said Railan. “I enjoyed the short friendship we had.”

Link, Solo, and Railan awoke in a
wide open meadow filled with grasses and flowers. The meadow stretched as far
as they could see, to the end of the horizon and beyond. Butterflies and
hummingbirds flitted from blossom to blossom, sucking the nectar from the
flowers. The sun was directly overhead in the cloudless blue sky, but it didn’t
seem as bright as it should be. The air was still and scentless. The only noise
they could hear was their own thoughts.

“This definitely isn’t the real
world,” said Link with an air of knowledge. There was something familiar about
this place that made him feel safe and secure. Everything was perfect. He felt
completely at ease, with an inner peace he’d never dreamed of. He could
remember activating the self-destruct, and the sound of the countdown. But once
the voice had counted down to one, he woke up here.

“This is pretty boring for the
afterlife,” Solo said.

“I feel pretty good though,” Railan
commented. “If this is death, I wouldn’t mind spending it with you two.”

Then as if by magic, three women
appeared before them. They were stunningly beautiful. They were tall, but not
lanky; with hair the texture of silk and color of gold; and beaming smiles that
would melt the heart of even a hardened criminal. Their faces were similar, but
slightly different, like they were sisters. They each wore flowing gowns that
seemed more like body parts than clothing. The one on the left had a red dress,
in the middle a blue dress, and on the right a green dress.

“Welcome, our children,” said the
woman in blue. Each woman gently hugged and kissed Link, Solo, and Railan. They
felt their hearts melt and minds calm with the touch of the beautiful women.
They had never felt so safe and secure. The feeling of love was so strong that
they could almost touch it.

“Are we dead?” asked Railan.

“Nothing dies,” said the woman in
red. “Life only changes forms.”

“I believe you know who we are,” said
the woman in green.

Link and Solo nodded, but it took
Railan a moment of thought to convince himself of what he was seeing. With wide
eyes, he fell to his knees and bowed before the women. “The almighty
goddesses!” Railan exclaimed. “Your holy worshipfulness, I’m not worthy to even
look at you.” Railan kept his face down and prostrated himself. He felt a hand
on his shoulder and looked up to see the smiling face of the woman in blue.
“You are Nayru,” he said.

“I am Din,” said the woman in red.

“I am Farore,” said the woman in
green.

Railan put his head down again. “I’m
a sinner, I’m not good enough to look at you.”

Nayru took his hand and pulled him to
his feet. “I love you, my child. You will always be worthy. We love you more
than a mother loves her newborn baby. Our love for you has no end. No man is
greater than another, and we are no greater than you. You will speak to us as
equals.”

“Don’t be afraid my son,” said Din in
a soothing voice.

“I want to see my mama and sister
again,” said Railan with tears in his eyes.

“And see them you shall,” said
Farore.

“Why are we here?” asked Link.

Farore replied, “Each of you made the
most noble of sacrifices. You gave up your lives not only for those you loved,
but for people you would never know. Link, your battle against the great Evil
One, it was started at the time you left. Daimanius caused a huge rock from
space to crash into the world.”

“I’ve seen that before,” Link
said.

“Yes, much like on that other world,
an evil force was behind the disaster. But in this case, the rock crashed into
the planet. Fortunately, our children were at a state where they could leave
the world to protect themselves. Most of the people exist on other worlds, or
have ascended to another plane of existence.”

Din continued, “After the world
recovered, we seeded it with life again. All the peoples and creatures of the
world are descendants of the life we seeded. We also used the opportunity to create
the Triforce, and imprison the Evil One. And you, Link, were destined to
vanquish him forever.”

“Your destiny has now come
full-circle,” said Nayru.

“So why are we here?” asked Link. “I
thought you weren’t supposed to interfere with the world.”

“Yes, that’s true,” said Nayru. “We
don’t interfere if it violates someone’s free will. But the three of you chose
of your own free will to make this sacrifice. Ganondorf and his minions
interfered with your free will, and you took it upon yourselves to
correct that mistake, losing your lives in the process. That cannot be allowed.
Your free will to choose your own paths must be restored. You returned the
world to its natural order, and it is only right for us to return you to your
natural state.”

“The lives you’ve saved are
innumerable,” said Din. “The history you restored is the true path, not a
perverted version thought up by an evil madman. Ganondorf's spirit will remain
in the Sacred Realm until such time that he is reincarnated in the endless
cycle. Koros will be returned to the limbo she escaped from."

"Yes," replied Din.
"The future will continue the path it was meant to follow. As the Council
expected, the time machine in the future will never be invented. But now it’s
time for you to return to your history.”

“We will send you back to the exact
moment you left,” said Farore.

“Will we remember any of this?” asked
Railan.

“Do you wish to remember?”

Link, Solo, and Railan looked at each
other. They nodded silently. “I can live with it,” said Link. Railan and Solo
agreed.

“Very well,” said Farore. “Because
the future will not have the time machine, you are free to discuss your
adventure with others. Do not worry about contaminating the future; it will be
fine. And we want you to remember that we love you. Each of you has many trials
ahead of you, but many happy times as well. Have faith, and obey your
conscience.”

The three women smiled and the world
vanished once again.

Link, Railan, and Solo stood outside
of Link’s house, feeling a little disoriented. They remembered looking at the
strange device Link was holding, but it mysteriously disappeared. “That was
strange,” Solo said.

“Um...did all of that just happen?”
asked Railan to no one in particular. They were still in Link’s house, but
everyone felt like they’d been gone for days. The memories of waking up in a
strange new world, and fighting an evil foe were fresh in their minds. “Was
that real? Did we really see the goddesses?”

“Yes, we did,” said Link. “I’ve seen
them before. That’s how they talk to people. I think everything we remember
actually happened.”

“You haven’t known Link long enough,”
said Solo dryly. “He’s been through more bizarre things than you could ever
imagine. What happened just now was nothing.”

Railan’s eyes widened. “So we just
got done traveling through time, waking up in the future, running around on a
quest that your dead father told you about, then traveled a million years into
the past to battle a man that you’ve fought before in the future; and
that’s not even the most bizarre thing that’s happened to you?”

“No, not really,” Link replied
nonchalantly.

Railan shook his head in disbelief.
“I must have the most boring life in the world compared to you.”

“Believe me, I’d love to have
a boring life,” said Link.

They were interrupted by Saria, who
came running up to them. “Hey, are you guys coming for dinner?” She gave them
bewildered looks. “Is something wrong? You guys look a little tired.”

Link chuckled and patted Saria on the
shoulder. “You’re never gonna believe this story...”